Toronto-New York train done?
"CN’s “Notice of Discontinuance of Railway Line” was published on May 19, 2011. The line includes the track on the Whirlpool Bridge used by Amtrak. Expressions of interest to comment on or purchase the property have now passed, as of July 18, 2011," Transport Action's Doug Wilson writes.
"This track closure would essentially end Amtrak service into Southern Ontario," Wilson writes.
High Speed Rail Canada reports: "The Niagara Bridge Commission owns the Whirlpool Bridge that has a single track crossing that The Maple Leaf runs on. CN has the rights to run trains on the bridge. It has not run freight traffic over the bridge in several years and now has decided unilaterally to abandon the bridge and offer the track for sale at an unknown cost."
"The Niagara Bridge Commission is charging a fee for passenger rail operators that want to continue to run a service over the bridge. Sources who want to remain private have stated that the fees the Commission is charging Amtrak to run on the bridge are extremely high. VIA Rail is doing its usual "duck and cover routine" on this issue and are doing nothing to keep the passenger rail service intact on this line. On the Canadian side, the Progressive Conservation Federal Government under Prime Minister Harper has not taken any actions to address the issues relating to purchasing the track over the bridge and negotiating a fair price for usage of the bridge," Paul Langan wrote for High Speed Rail Canada on July 14, 2011.
Transport Action members are urged to alert:
a) Canadian Chamber of Commerce;
b) Ontario Chamber of Commerce;
c) Canadian Office of Tourism;
d) Tourism Ontario;
e) Niagara Parks Commission;
f) Toronto Tourism;
g) Toronto Board of Trade;
h) Ontario Hotel Association;
i) Toronto Hotel Association.
"Amtrak Cascades route reached significant ridership growth in the second quarter of 2011, carrying nearly three quarters of a million people and breaking its record reached in 2010. Ridership for April, May and June recorded the highest second quarter totals since 1994, with 231,194 passengers. Compared to the second quarter of 2010, this is an increase of nearly eight percent, or more than 16,550 new passengers. The month of June had the highest increase of nearly 10 percent and 78,839 passengers," Railway Track and Structures reported on July 25.
Transport Action and many other groups continue to fight for a long-term fix to the dispute over the border-crossing fee charged the Canadian government charges Amtrak.
Road safety, Hourly pay for truckers!
"In conversations I've had with fleet owners, there seems to be a growing acceptance that drivers not only need to be paid more, but differently as well. Of course, I'm referring to hourly pay, which, in today's environment - where running illegally is a dead-end street - would be welcomed by most professional drivers. Fleets big and small seem cognizant of the need for change. A case in point is Blair Clark, general manager of Dartmouth, N.S.-based Classic Freight Systems. I visited with Blair while out east and he said he expects the industry to gravitate en-masse towards hourly pay before he sees his own retirement. And he's not all apocalyptic about it either," Truck News editor James Menzies wrote for Hooked Up on July 26, 2011.
"I would suggest our industry is going to go through a major transformation where - possibly within my career - we're going to see rate-per-mile shift to rate-per-hour," Blair told me. He foresees a future where his fleet and others will calculate rates based on the time it will take to deliver the load (average wait times included) multiplied by an hourly rate of, say $200. It's not an unusual comment either. And there are templates out there. Paul's Hauling has an effective hourly pay structure, which CEO John Erik Albrechtsen described to me as "we pay hourly to a standard," meaning the drivers are paid hourly, provided they accomplish the work that's expected of them," Hooked Up reported.
Louis-François Garceau, Le Temple de la renommée des chemins de fer du Canada