Category Archives for "Intercity Rail and Bus"

Annual Meetings – April 5, 2025

By Transport Action Ontario | Highways and Bridges , Intercity Rail and Bus , Latest News , Northern Ontario , Urban Transit

Transport Action Ontario (TAO) and Transport Action Canada (TAC) invite all members and supporters to join us for our annual public meeting on April 5, 2025, to be followed by the Annual General Meetings of both organizations. The meetings will be in hybrid format – in person in Kingston, Ontario and virtual using ZOOM, and will start at 1:00 pm.

The public meeting will feature key notes speakers Carl Fowler on cross-border passenger rail, Shawn Marshall on mapping Canada’s motorcoach network and a discussion of Kingston as a future regional hub for VIA Rail/Alto.

For further details and registration information for the public meeting, click here.

The public meeting will be followed by the Annual General Meetings for both organizations – between 3:00 pm and 3:45 pm for TAC and between 3:45 – 4:30 pm for TAO. Members in good standing have received separate invites for these sessions.

Transportation Infrastructure: Virginia Invests while Ontario spends

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

Transport Action Ontario (TAO) remains deeply concerned about the direction of transportation congestion relief policies in Ontario. While the province is investing heavily in transit in Greater Toronto, the solution that elected officials promote and brag about is to spend billions on new highway infrastructure, and millions more on policies to lower costs for drivers – such as toll eliminations and gas tax reductions.

The State of Virginia is facing a similar congestion problem, and has chosen to invest in passenger rail rather than more highways and more lanes, for a variety of good reasons. TAO board member Ken Westcar attended a recent webinar from the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority, and has written an article contrasting Virginia and Ontario.

Ken’s article is attached.

Ontario Policy Brief – Passenger Rail in Southern Ontario

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

With the upcoming Ontario election, February 27, 2025, Transport Action Ontario has prepared a policy brief on increasing investment in intercity passenger rail in southern Ontario, as extracted from Transport Action Canada’s 2024 report “Beyond HFR: Advancing Passenger Rail Across Canada”.

The one-page brief has been sent to all political parties with members in the Ontario legislature. The brief describes the idea and the ultra-low costs involved.

The brief can be seen below.

Support for Detroit-Windsor Passenger Rail Link

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

Transport Action Canada and Transport Action Ontario have jointly issued a letter of support to the Federal government for a proposed Amtrak – VIA Rail passenger rail connection between Detroit and Windsor. The proposal involves station and signal upgrades in Detroit, use of the CPKC tunnel under the Detroit River, upgraded track on the Essex Terminal Railway (ETR), a new connection between ETR and VIA tracks and upgrades at Windsor Station, including a joint CBSA/CBP border clearing facility.

We are hopeful that the upcoming federal budget will include funding for the Windsor portion of the project, estimated to cost about $40 million.

Our letter can be viewed below.

Photo: Amtrak Midwest Siemens Venture cars pictured at Joliet by “Sea Cow” via Wikimedia commons

Connected Intercity Bus Network still Needed

By Transport Action Ontario | Intercity Rail and Bus , Northern Ontario , Southwestern Ontario

At the public portion of the Transport Action Ontario Annual General Meeting, May 25, 2024, John Stepovy, Director of Partnerships, Busbud.com, summarized the status of the intercity bus network in Canada. 

Busbud is a Canadian company that provides bus and rail trip searching, planning, scheduling, booking and payment services for clients in 80 countries.  Key partners in Canada include VIA Rail, Union Pearson Express, Flixbus, Rider Express, Ontario Northland, Ebus, Maritime Bus and many more.

There continue to be issues in establishing a coordinated bus network in Canada:

• Different carriers have different concession definitions and different baggage policies.
• Different carriers often use different terminals in the same part of a city, meaning connections are challenging, especially with baggage.  For example, most bus carriers use the Union Station Bus Terminal in Toronto, while others use a drop point on York St. or on Queen’s Quay Blvd.
• Lack of federal interest in developing a cross-Canada connected network. The federal government could fill a real gap by funding a central platform that houses all carriers’ schedules, maps, route information and fares.  While parliamentarians are supportive of this, Transport Canada has largely deflected this need to the Provinces.
• Lack of federal interest in supporting private carriers to fill out the rural bus network.  For example, private carriers are not eligible for the Rural Transit Solutions Fund.

Transport Action will continue to work with Busbud and with bus carriers to advocate for improvements to the cross-Canada bus network.