Transport Action Canada Hot Line

8 January 2010

This is the Transport Action Canada Hotline, issue number 1054, for 8 January 2010.

In this issue...

1 - Transport Action Canada, formerly Transport 2000

Canada's national voice for sustainable public transportation has a new name, "Transport Action Canada". It replaces "Transport 2000 Canada" which has been in use since the organization's founding in 1976. "Our voice has been heard through our national and regional organizations on all matters affecting public transportation, by all modes, in all parts of the country," said David Jeanes, president of Transport Action Canada.

Regional associate organizations in Atlantic Canada, Ontario, the Prairies and British Columbia are taking the necessary steps to change their names to Transport Action. Transport 2000 Québec will retain its present name, for now.

2 - Transport 2000 Canada devient Transport Action Canada

La voix canadienne des transports publics durables a un nouveau nom, « Transport Action Canada », en remplacement de son ancien nom bien connu depuis plus de trente ans, « Transport 2000 Canada ».

« Notre voix a souvent été entendue, émanant de notre association nationale et de ses composantes régionales sur tous les sujets pertinents se rapportant aux transports publics canadiens de tous genres » a dit David Jeanes, président de Transport Action Canada. « Nous sommes une association à but non-lucratif bénévole, inscrite en tant qu'organisme charitable, dont le bureau national est à Ottawa, et qui continuera à promouvoir le développement durable des transports publics tant pour les voyageurs que pour les marchandises », dit-il.

Transport 2000 associations régionales de l'Atlantique, de l'Ontario, des Prairies et de la Colombie-Britannique sont en train de faire les démarches de changement de leur nom pour Transport Action. Dans l'immédiat, Transport 2000 Québec garde son nom actuel.

3 - Cost of Ottawa light rail tunnel could jump: David Jeanes, Transport Action Canada

"City councillors voted last month to approve a $2.1 billion, 12.5-kilometre stretch of light rail track, to run from the Tunney's Pasture transit station in the west to the Blair station in the east," CBC News reported on Jan. 3.

"Ottawa is proposing a tunnel [that] is very deep. It's passing underneath buildings and it's passing through rock that we really don't know much about," (David) Jeanes said."Very few other building owners or land owners have ever gone as deep as we need to go for this system." CBC News reported .

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2010/01/03/ottawa-rail-tunnel465.html

4 - Ontario could lose rail corridor from Ottawa to Sudbury

"The rail lines between Smiths Falls and Sudbury could be removed within the next two years if a third party short line operator doesn't enter the picture" the Pembroke Daily Observer reported on Jan. 7. "CP's increasingly more efficient use of its core rail network has removed the need to use the OVR route, according to a presentation by Rick Poznikoff from Canadian Pacific's Kamloops office, who was in Petawawa Wednesday."

"The main thing is to keep the steel in the ground," (James Allen of JDA Consulting in Metcalfe, Ont said). "We've been too quick to lift the rails in the past and we don't want to see that happen here." The next step is convening a meeting of municipal leaders all along the line from Lanark County to North Bay and everyone in between, which Renfrew County Warden Don Rathwell will help facilitate," Daily Observer reporter Tina Peplinskie wrote.

http://www.thedailyobserver.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2250559

5 - North Bay plans meetings to discuss Northern rail

"Northern Ontario and Ottawa Valley communities plan to head into the new year holding discussions about rail service as RaiLink Canada Ltd. ends its lease of a section of Ottawa Valley Railway owned by the Canadian Pacific Railway," Maria Calabrese reported in the Dec. 26 edition of the North Bay Nugget.

http://www.timminspress.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2237894

6 - Métro, boulot, condo: Transit pass required for new condo buyers

« Toronto force désormais les constructeurs de condominiums à fournir gratuitement aux acheteurs un laissez-passer mensuel de transport en commun durant un an » SRC Nouvelles a rapporté le 4 janvier. « Le fondateur du groupe Transport 2000, Harry Gow, voit quant à lui l'initiative d'un bon oeil. Selon lui, les gens s'habituent au transport en commun et poursuivent ensuite leur « bon comportement »

SRC Nouvelles a rapporté « Le nouveau règlement municipal ne s'applique pas aux condominiums déjà en construction; les effets de la mesure ne se feront donc pas sentir avant un an ou deux »

7 - $3-million study on high speed rail: Sometime this year

"Politicians in Queen's Park and the federal government will receive in 2010 a $3-million study on the feasibility of high-speed rail between Quebec City and Windsor," the London Free Press reported on Jan. 4.

"The Canadian economy has been stalled as countries in Europe and Asia are decades ahead building high-speed rail and even the U.S. has built faster trains, said Dianne Cunningham, a former Ontario Tory cabinet minister who directs the Lawrence Centre at the Richard Ivey School of Business. "We don't have freight or passenger service that's competitive with our trading partners," the London Free Press quoted Cunningham.

http://www.ottawasun.com/news/canada/2010/01/04/12336501-sun.html

8 - Canada out of step on protecting airline passengers

"American air carriers could be fined as much as 27,000 dollars per seat if stranded passengers aren't returned to the airport after three hours. But a private member's bill designed to protect passengers here has hit stormy political weather and is now stalled in committee by procedural wrangling," CBC National reported on Dec. 22.

"Instead airlines are now following new guidelines which say airlines should provide meal vouchers for delays and schedule departures of over four hours. If you get stuck on the tarmac, airlines offer drinks and snacks if it's safe to do so, and if delays exceed 90 minutes, offer the option of disembarking but only if circumstances permit. Consumer advocates say it's not enough," CBC's Reg Sherren reported.

Public Interest Advocacy Centre's Michael Janigan told the National: "It's not just simply the airlines' fault, it's also the government's fault for failing to protect the citizens that are supposed to be protected."

9 - Big fare increase for Calgary public transit users

"Adult transit fares are also going up, by 25 cents to $2.75 for a single fare. While adult and youth monthly passes are also increasing, the cost of a low-income pass isn't changing, after council decided to maintain the 2009 price for this year," the Calgary Herald reported on Jan. 4.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/entertainment/City+boosts+fees+services/2402631/story.html

10 - Peterborough Metrolinx, Federal, Provincial commuter rail study

The Peterborough Examiner reported: "A study on how to operate commuter rail service between Peterborough and Toronto should be complete by the end of the month, Peterborough MPP Jeff Leal says. ... "Metrolinx is being more vague about when the study will be complete and when it will be available to the public," the Examiner's Brendan Wedley wrote.

"Ontario and the federal Conservative government committed as much as $150 million each in the Building Canada Fund agreement towards the Peterborough commuter rail line in July 2008 -- contingent on the results of the Metrolinx study," the Examiner reported on Jan. 5.

http://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2246846

11 - TransLink: Vancouver parkers protest fee increase

"A coalition of business interests in Vancouver handed out flyers and leaflets in the downtown core Thursday morning to protest the tripling of the provincial sales tax on parking. The tax, which applies to off-street paid parking lots in Metro Vancouver, increased to 21 per cent from seven per cent at the beginning of 2010. It is the first increase since 1999," CBC News reported on Jan. 8.

"The 30 groups that form the "Drive Out the Tax" coalition range from building and business owners to community organizations. ... The tax is collected by the provincial government and handed over to TransLink, the region's transportation authority. The money is used to maintain everything from public transit to major roads and bridges. ... "TransLink spokesman Ken Hardie said the increase came about as part of talks with the region about ways to pay for the transportation system

"It was based on input from many, many thousands of people. That measure was put in the package that is sustaining the system now," CBC News reported.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/01/07/bc-parking-tax-increase-protest.html

Thank you for calling the Transport Action Canada Hotline. For additional information, please contact our web site at:

www.transport-action.ca.