Feb 07

High Speed Rail Canada’s verdict on VIA’s High Frequency Rail proposal: a mystery inside an enigma. TAO proposes High Performance Rail option.

By Transport Action Ontario | Intercity Rail and Bus , Latest News

On January 26, 2017, Paul Langan wrote on the High-Speed Rail Canada group’s website, “One thing has been constant about VIA RAIL in my over thirty years of rail advocacy. Their secrecy and arrogance to the taxpayers and the advocates that support them has not waivered.” The most recent example cited by Langan is VIA’s High Frequency Rail (HFR) plan for a new dedicated track in the Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal triangle needed, VIA says, because CN freights often block its trains.

VIA’s proposal is about express trains serving the three triangle cities. At a low-balled cost of $4 billion, new conventional track would be constructed for express trains traveling in the 90 to 110 mph range (145 – 180 km/h) built amazingly quickly in just four years. Langan is asking for the details mentioning that the full details of a very similar 2002 proposal called VIAFast have never been released. Langan notes that the HFR route being proposed is the old Ontario and Quebec Railway (later Canadian Pacific) through Peterborough, Havelock, Tweed, Perth and Smith Falls abandoned by CP 100 years ago because of curves and steep grades.

Transport Action Ontario (TAO) opposes VIA’s HFR plan. It is the wrong investment to make at a time when central and southwest Ontario are so seriously deficient in intercity public transportation connectivity. The alternative is High Performance Rail (HPR) widely found in the U.S.

HPR is defined by its multiple service attributes, including frequency, low ticket price, comfort, all-weather reliability, on-time performance, and integration with other public transportation services. Imagine if GO trains were operated in longer distance intercity service with more comfortable seating.

Not originally in the HFR plan, apparently VIA woke up late to the fact that there’s a considerable population in eastern Ontario – cities such as Belleville and Kingston. VIA has now told these cities they will not be left behind. Once the dedicated backwoods line is built, there will be hourly trains on the Lakeshore with Kingston a hub offering some connecting trains heading further east. Details are sketchy or missing.

The federal government has already invested hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ dollars upgrading CN’s Kingston subdivision to separate freight and passenger train movements east of Toronto. The few remaining bottlenecks can be similarly eliminated with public funds. This would free up the Lakeshore route for both express and hourly stopping trains. Connectivity would be enhanced by continuing Kingston’s present hub role. At Kingston, passengers would have access to both the express and stopping trains to and from Smith Falls and Ottawa and to Brockville, Cornwall and Montreal. It would also free up capital for investment in bi-level passenger cars that would provide comfortable, reliable, easy and quick boarding, and the extra passenger capacity that is the hallmark of the mass public transportation HPR model.

Instead of wasting time studying VIA’s technically challenging, commercially questionable HFR plan, the federal and provincial governments should be considering the benefits of an enhanced Ontario-Quebec international trade corridor. Rather than continued provincial ad-hoc expenditures on self-defeating highway widenings and expansions, the focus should be on a substantial expansion of rail capacity for freight and passengers through partnerships between governments, freight railways, and passenger train operating agencies. Expanding freight and passenger traffic capacity and raising speeds safely in the Windsor-Montreal corridor is in everyone’s interest. (February 7, 2017)

Sources: www.highspeedrailcanada.com; see blog entries and press releases dated Nov. 9, 2015, Aug. 6, 2016, Jan. 26, 2017, and Jan. 31, 2017.

Jan 12

Transportation Network Deficiencies in Northern Ontario

By Transport Action Ontario | Intercity Rail and Bus , Latest News , Northern Ontario

Our affiliate organization, the Northern and Eastern Ontario Rail Network (NEORN),  has issued a report summarizing the transportation network deficiencies in Northern Ontario.  These stem from too many highway closures, too many air travel disruptions, inadequate bus service and minimal passenger rail. alternatives.  The report advocates for restoration of passenger rail on existing rail corridors.

The report can be viewed here:  NEORN-2017-01-12

Jan 07

Op Ed on Rail Improvements in Southwestern Ontario

By Transport Action Ontario | Intercity Rail and Bus , Latest News

Transport Action Ontario board member Ken Westcar recently published an op-ed article in the London Free Press, advocating for significant, short-term improvements to existing passenger rail services in southwestern Ontario, rather than solely studying a high-speed rail service. The article in its original text is posted below:

London Free Press
OPINION
Upgrades would outpace high-speed rail
Ken Westcar, Special to Postmedia Network
Friday, January 6, 2017

Comedian Rick Mercer once quipped that Canada is a leader in high-speed rail reports. He was referring to the fact that numerous, expensive studies have been done by federal and provincial government agencies, since the 1970s, and all gather dust while not one metre of track has been laid. In early 2015 the Province of Ontario commissioned a further study of a possible high-speed rail (HSR) project connecting downtown Toronto to Kitchener, London and eventually Windsor.

Much credibility was added by the appointment of ex-federal Liberal transport minister David Collenette who has since managed a stakeholder consultation process that was scheduled to culminate in the release of a report in November 2016. It’s now expected in 2017. Probing the concept of sleek and speedy passenger rail services captured the futuristic interest of several communities along the proposed route and, possibly, caused them to lose focus on advocating for significant, shorter-term improvement to existing services. Likely, it has pushed the possibility of badly needed intercity public transportation improvements in southwestern Ontario well beyond 2020 as VIA Rail continues to struggle with outdated equipment and Highway 401 suffers chronic congestion and frequent closure.

It’s now clear that the Wynne government asked the wrong question of David Collenette and his team. Instead of prescribing the HSR solution, the province should have been asking what is wrong with the system (which isn’t a system) and how we go about fixing it on a staged basis that involves all the current players and assets. If HSR wound up being part of a long-range vision, fine. But HSR will not fix the basic problems we experience in southwestern Ontario or anywhere else in Canada. The solutions are truly multi-modal and they must be undertaken in a step-by-step fashion that is driven by a cooperatively-crafted master plan. You can only create a master plan when all the players are talking to each other and they come to understand the problems each is facing, as well as the opportunities for cooperation and coordination.

It’s not difficult to understand the negative consequences of extremely limited mobility options in southwestern Ontario as it attempts the transition from its traditional economic base to one embracing advanced manufacturing, innovation, information technology and greater productivity. At the same time, social inclusion, environmental sustainability and the broadest possible economic opportunities for its people remain paramount. But growing Highway 401 constraints are proof that a single transportation mode can kneecap the best of regional plans. Faith in autonomous vehicles solving the region’s transportation problems may have its place, but only as part of a robust, multi-modal solution.

Passenger rail service between Toronto, Kitchener, Stratford, and London epitomize what’s wrong with David Collenette’s brief from the Province of Ontario. VIA’s punctuality and frequency along this entire route are abysmal. At the same time Metrolinx plans to intensify GO train service between Toronto and Kitchener that will poach more passengers and track capacity from VIA. West of Kitchener the track, various sections of which are owned and operated by several entities, continues to deteriorate. VIA therefore faces the perfect storm of passenger loss and decrepit infrastructure, much to the annoyance of Stratford and St. Marys who see improved passenger rail services as vital to their economic future.

One would therefore assume that all stakeholders on this route, including the federal and provincial governments, would collaborate on how best to develop this asset to meet the demands of both passengers and freight. After all, it’s much cheaper to upgrade trackage and extend existing services than build new and it can be delivered much faster. Had Collenette’s team been tasked with finding a solution to this and other inter-community travel inhibitors in southwestern Ontario, while studying how future high-speed rail might add further utility, it’s more likely that the short to medium term mobility needs of the region could be met quite quickly and at moderate cost. It’s precisely what’s happening in the USA and it should happen here.

Probably, Collenette’s report will show high-speed rail between Toronto and Windsor difficult to construct and, based on the European experience, fiendishly expensive. That it has a place in many modern economies is without doubt. But the Province should have avoided the sole pursuit of a distant transportation dream by asking a much broader question. Simply speaking, it is how do we invest taxpayer money to get an in-depth understanding of the overall southwestern Ontario mobility problem, seek a forward-thinking, best-value solution and then act on it in a coordinated, incremental and affordable way? Most likely this vital question will remain unanswered while yet another high-speed rail report gets consigned to the annals of history.

Ken Westcar is an independent observer and writer on public transportation policy.

Jan 03

2017 New Year’s letter from the president

By Transport Action Ontario | Latest News , Press Releases and Open Letters


Welcome to the New Year of 2017. May it be happy and prosperous for you!

Our path forward Transport Action Ontario has a full agenda for 2017. In the fall of 2016, TAO decided to focus its advocacy on intercity rail and connectivity, the integration of public transport into a network of services that includes intercity rail, regional bus and rail services, and local transit. We will oppose the bad and the ugly, support the good, and call for and champion initiatives that take Ontario closer to a sustainable public transportation system. We highly value local public transit, but will rely on and work with other groups already doing transit advocacy. Metrolinx will remain as a focus as a provider of regional intercity transit.

Ontario is facing a large public transportation deficit. Most of the province is without intercity or even local public transportation. While the Province has invested in transit in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, and in Ottawa, the rest of the province is stuck with auto-dependency. There is a heavy price to auto-dependency which disadvantages students and seniors and people with low incomes generally. Auto-dependency is a drag on local economic development hampering labour mobility and spurring depopulation. While the Province recognizes that it must work to help reverse climate change, it has not recognized that a key way to do that is to provide public transport alternatives to the whole of Ontario.

Southwestern Ontario Cuts to VIA Rail service in 2012 hit Southwestern Ontario particularly hard. TAO, along with several other local groups, looked at how an integrated network of rail and bus services could be brought to this part of Ontario. The Network Southwest plan, written by Greg Gormick and released in 2015, proposes a provincially supported bus network integrated with an upgraded and expanded rail network. Frequent train service using bi-level passenger cars following the model of state-supported Amtrak services in California and elsewhere in the U.S. is highlighted. Another report in 2016, also written by Gormick, explores the concept of High Performance Rail in detail.

The objectives of these two reports still apply. Southwestern Ontario desperately needs integrated public transportation. In 2017 TAO will give special attention to the North Main Line, the rail line between Toronto, Guelph, Kitchener, Stratford, St. Marys and London. VIA Rail is providing very poor and extremely unreliable train service on this route. The Province has mandated Metrolinx to offer commuter rail service from Kitchener into Toronto, but Metrolinx’s commuter trains make many stops and are slow. Moreover, the transportation demand along the North Main Line doesn’t end at Kitchener. It extends west to Stratford and London. It is time for frequent all-day two-way express rail service the full length of the Innovation (Knowledge) Corridor Toronto-Kitchener-London. TAO will be advocating high performance rail for this corridor with a delivery agency to be worked out through agreements between the feds, the province, and the municipalities being served.

Northern Ontario The cancellation of the Northlander between Toronto, North Bay and Cochran in 2012, the infrequency and unreliability of VIA’s Canadian across northwestern Ontario, declining intercity bus service, and the recent suspension of the Sault-Hearst train underscore the substantial decline in public transportation options for northern Ontario. In 2017, TAO will continue to work closely with the Northeastern Ontario Rail Network based in North Bay, and the Coalition for Algoma Passenger Trains based in the Sault to bring back and enhance rail/bus and transit services for Ontario’s north.

Eastern Ontario VIA Rail has proposed building a new exclusive passenger railway from Toronto to Smith Falls through Peterborough and Havelock as part of its High Frequency Rail plan. VIA is proposing frequent rail service between Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal on this route using non-stop trains. TAO is opposed to this plan as costly and unnecessary. VIA has already paid close to half a billion dollars for added track on CN’s Lakeshore route Toronto-Kingston-Brockville-Montreal to help reduce conflicts between passenger and freight trains on this route. Perhaps in anticipation of blow back from cities such as Belleville and Kingston, VIA recently proposed adding almost hourly train service to the Lakeshore route in addition to the new dedicated track proposal. TAO’s position is to support frequent high performance passenger rail along the Lakeshore route by investing scarce capital funds on continuing to upgrade the Lakeshore line with the aim of having both frequent express trains Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal connecting with stopping trains serving cities in eastern Ontario.

Ongoing projects As part of the Move the GTHA collaborative, TAO will continue to push for new dedicated revenue sources for transporation investment. If implemented properly, these can provide funding needed for public transport improvements all across Ontario. There continues to be a need for federal legislation definiing the rights and obligations of passenger rail in Canada, especially if operating on track owned by the freight railways. We have been inputting into a Private Members Bill on this topic to be introduced in 2017.

Longer term TAO supports rail investments to upgrade international connections to the U.S. from Ontario. Both New York and Michigan are investing to implement high performance rail, in New York between Niagara Falls and New York City, and in Michigan between Detroit and Chicago. TAO supports passenger rail connections between Ontario and the U.S. at Niagara Falls and at Windsor.

Highlighted above are several big issues for TAO in 2017. Others will surely arise. We look forward to your support through membership and donations that will help us carry forward these and other activities to achieve sustainable integrated public transportation for Ontario.

Tony Turrittin, President, January 3, 2017

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