Transport 2000 Canada Hot Line

29 May 2009

This is the Transport 2000 Canada Hotline, issue number 1022, for 29 May 2009.

In this issue...

1 - Calendar

2 - Women of Distinction: Transport 2000's Catherine Verrall honoured

In its citation of Catherine Verrall the Regina YWCA said: "Catherine lives to spread awareness that all our concerns are interdependent within our sustaining planetary environment. ... She has worked tirelessly promoting ecological sustainability, peace, social and racial justice, public transportation and building community through inter-relationship and respect. Catherine's passion has emboldened her to speak to City councils; to the public through radio, television and print; and with individuals on the street; she has collected thousands of signatures on petitions, inspiring and empowering others to become involved. Catherine lives by example. She usually travels by walking, bike, public transportation and train ... she is an example we should all aspire to - living harmoniously with the earth and all beings.

In response, Catherine Verrall, President, Transport 2000 Prairie Region, said: "We are privileged to live in the most perilous and challenging times humans have ever encountered. Our human activities - our human life-styles - our human systems are rapidly making our planetary home less and less able to support all our lives - our joys - our concerns, and the children who come after us. This award is an honouring of all the people - in this room and in this community - who find ways to make a difference , for the well-being of all beings in this wondrous creation, beings human and non-human, all our kin."

3 - Money should first go to commuter trains, tramways: Normand Parisien, Transport 2000

Before spending $3 billion to extend the métro in Montreal's east-end, Laval and Longueuil, officials should consider faster, cheaper ways to improve public transit and come up with an integrated regional transportation plan, transit activists say. Montreal, Laval and Longueuil will reportedly ask Quebec to okay a 10-year plan to extend the métro by 11 stations over 20 kilometres, at a cost of $150 million per kilometre," the Montreal Gazette reported on May 25.

"Normand Parisien of the lobby group Transport 2000 was surprised to learn of the métro-extension proposal since many other pressing transit projects are stalled. He pointed to the long-discussed plan to buy new métro cars; the airport train shuttle, which would also improve West Island commuter service; the new train to Repentigny and Mascouche; and the Pie IX reserved bus lane, which shut in 2002 after two fatal accidents but has yet to reopen because of a struggle between transit authorities.

"A métro expansion should not come at the expense of Montreal's announced transit plans, which include a tramway network, he said. It's impossible to say whether extending the métro is a good idea because the region still lacks an "integrated metropolitan transport plan," Parisien said. "That's important so we can evaluate different scenarios and compare various projects and the cost and benefit of each one," the Gazette's Andy Riga wrote.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/a9tro+expansion+activists+advise/1629257/story.html

4 - High Speed Rail Canada: London would reap major benefits

"A high-speed rail line would change London into a flourishing Toronto bedroom community, an industry expert says. Chuck Wochele, a vice-president with rail manufacturer Alstom, told a London symposium last night such rail lines -- which carry passenger trains as fast as 170 miles an hour -- are successful across Europe and could spur enormous growth in London," the London Free Press reported today.

"'It changes the dynamics of cities," said Wochele, who called London a "perfect" stopping point on a high-speed line. "You would get people moving away from Toronto to live here and commute to work every day," the Free Press's Patrick Maloney wrote.

The event was run by Paul Langan of High Speed Rail Canada.

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/CanadaWorld/2009/05/29/9606621-sun.html

5 - La Ville lance une étude pour mieux utiliser chemins de fer et autoroutes

"Tramway, tramway sur pneus, train aérien ou de banlieue : même si Québec n'a pas encore tranché sur son mode de transport de demain, la Communauté métropolitaine (CMQ) cherche déjà où l'implanter. Comme le révélait Le Soleil en mars dernier, cette dernière a lancé hier une étude pour passer au peigne fin les 400 km de voies ferrées et les 125 km d'autoroutes de la région afin d'y trouver les tronçons les plus prometteurs. Sa voie d'avenir.," Le Soleil a rapporté le 26 mai.

À l'heure où le développement résidentiel de Québec se fait de plus en plus dans sa périphérie, la CMQ cherche ainsi à mieux relier les municipalités aux centres d'emplois. Parce que même si on est encore loin des heures de pointe de Toronto ou de Montréal, la congestion croissante sur les routes de la capitale incite la région à améliorer son offre de transport en commun.

S'étendant sur la région comme une véritable toile d'araignée, le réseau ferroviaire semble offrir une intéressante voie d'avenir aux yeux de la CMQ. L'idée n'est pas tant d'utiliser les rails que de voir si les terrains bordant ceux-ci pourraient accueillir des chaussées dédiées au transport en commun.

http://www.cyberpresse.ca/le-soleil/actualites/la-capitale/200905/25/01-859764-la-ville-lance-une-etude-pour-mieux-utiliser-chemins-de-fer-et-autoroutes.php

6 - TSB: Fatal train derailment blamed on faulty brakes

"Two men killed when their CN Rail train derailed near Lillooet three years ago would still be alive if the locomotive had had dynamic brakes or if the lumber car air brakes had worked, the Canadian Transportation Safety Board says," the Kamloops Daily News reported today.

"Instead, CN management had decided three months before the June 29, 2006, accident that they would send locomotives equipped only with air brakes through one of the "longest continuous mountain grades in Canada," TSB western regional operations manager Dan Holbrook said at the Kamloops release of the investigation report," the Daily News' Michele Young wrote.

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Fatal+train+derailment+blamed+faulty+brakes/1641958/story.html

7 - Metrolinx to study electrification of GO Transit's rail system

"Metrolinx is going to study the electrification of its entire GO Transit rail system as a future alternative to diesel trains currently in service. An external advisory committee made up of community representatives, including riders and independent technical experts, will be established to advise Metrolinx on the Terms of Reference for the study," Canada Newswire reported on May 26.

CNW reported: "Among the issues the Terms of Reference could address:

8 - How Canada fell from leader to laggard in high-speed rail

"On the morning of December 10, 1968, a shiny new locomotive left Toronto's Union Station, pulling a gleaming train packed to its "power dome" with journalists. Just four short years earlier, Japan had rolled out the world's first 200-kilometre-per-hour bullet train, and now scores of reporters were aboard to witness North America's technological response: the TurboTrain, designed by Sikorsky Aircraft, built by Montreal Locomotive Works, and proudly operated by Canadian National," Walrus Magazine reported in its June issue.

"An hour later, the TurboTrain slammed into a truck. "The driver of an empty meat truck near Kingston was used to beating trains across a level crossing and tried to outrun the Turbo," recalls John Downing, who reported on the maiden journey to Montreal. "We cut the truck in two, like a hot knife through butter." The hapless meat man survived. Canada's efforts to develop modern passenger rail service did not. Four decades later, we remain the sole G8 nation without high-speed rail," Walrus writer Monte Paulsen reported.

http://www.walrusmagazine.com/articles/2009.06--off-the-rails/

9 - Flight of Boeing 777 from Winnipeg shows CentrePort's potential

"It was hog heaven for almost 900 pigs when they were loaded onto a nearly brand new Boeing 777 cargo jet and flown out just after midnight to fly non-stop to Germany.It was the first time this giant cargo jet -- which only began flying for companies late last year -- had ever flown into Winnipeg the Winnipeg Free Press reported on May 27.

Earlier this month CentrePort, an inland port, was given a major boost when the federal and provincial governments announced $212 million to build a four-lane freeway to connect the airport and CentrePort land with Inkster Boulevard and the Perimeter Highway," the Free Press's Kevin Rollason wrote.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/flying-pigs-a-good-sign-46214312.html

10 - Algoma Central Railway slows service

"Transport Canada has ordered improvements to the Algoma Central Railway line north of Sault Ste. Marie, causing delays in passenger service. "We have been making improvements and they (Transport Canada) identified some further work that needed to be done," said Mark Hallman, spokesperson for Canadian National, which bough the railway from Wisconsin Central Transportation in 2001," the Sault Star reported on May 26.

"Affected is the 211-kilometre passenger run from Hawk Junction, just northeast of Wawa, to Hearst. As of Saturday, speeds have been reduced from 48 kilometres per hours (30 miles per hour) to 24 k/hr (15 mph), lengthening the trip from 11 hours to 16," the Star's Frank Dobrovnik wrote.

http://www.saultstar.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1584601

11 - Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson wants rail experience

"Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said he would've loved to have ridden a train south to bolster Cascadian economic ties in Seattle and Portland - but there was no train to take. 'We have one train a day that leaves Vancouver in the evening," said Robertson yesterday. "It's not convenient," Metro Vancouver reported on May 27.

"The mayor said a second Amtrack train would generate tens of millions in economic "uptick," but is being held back by the feds who want to charge Amtrack $1,500 a day in customs and immigration costs. The second train, as well as a potential high-speed rail link connecting Vancouver-Seattle-Portland, will be on his agenda when he meets his counterparts in the two cities this week," Metro's Jeff Hodson wrote.

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