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| Clean Train Coalition urges the Ontario government to integrate the Pearson Airport to Union Station link with Toronto's mass transit system. |
TORONTO – Today, Toronto City Council will vote on a motion requesting the Government of Ontario to build the Airport Rail Link (ARL) as a frequent, affordable, multi-stop electric transit service for Torontonians.
"We applaud this initiative by Councillor Frances Nunziata with strong backing from Councillor Mike Layton", says Carina Cojeen, co-chair of the Clean Train Coalition (CTC). "This motion embodies the transit vision that we have heard from residents in the transit-deficient communities along the rail corridor, who want all levels of government to invest in clean, efficient and effective transit now."
CTC research director Greg Gormick adds, "Premier Dalton McGuinty has called upon Mayor Rob Ford and Toronto City Council to act together to set transit investment priorities. Here is an innovative example of how that can be done. At relatively little added expense, the revised, rapid transit-style ARL will deliver a quick win for Toronto and the Province by creating what amounts to an above-ground subway. This is a golden transit opportunity."
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For more information please contact:
Carina Cojeen, CTC Co-Chair 416-886-2320
Greg Gormick, CTC Research Director 647-964-3621
Province has to come on board to help with the air-rail link Toronto needs
Toronto Star, Apr 11 2012
City councillors Frances Nunziata and Mike Layton wrote an opinion piece in today's Toronto Star about the motion. The councillors wrote: "When the air-rail link was originally proposed, there was a call for it to operate as a public transit line with at least 10 stops in the communities along the way. However, instead of coming forward with a plan to fulfill this need, the province instead proposed an air-rail link which, at this time, would stop at only two stations — one in Weston and one at Bloor."
"Even the plans for the Bloor stop no longer include integration with the Dundas West subway station for ease of transfer between lines. The air-rail link in its current form does not integrate with other major transit expansion projects in the city, and does not integrate with the new Eglinton light rail transit line," the city councillors wrote for the Toronto Star.
Frances Nunziata is Toronto city councillor for Ward 11, York South-Weston, and Mike Layton is councillor for Ward 19, Trinity-Spadina.
Province won’t slow airport train by adding more stops
Wed Apr 11 2012
Tess Kalinowski, Toronto Star, http://is.gd/F1oaT3
On May 16, 2011 Clean Train Coalition, Canadian Auto Workers and Transport Action Ontario released a report about the airport rail link.
Entitled No Little Plan: Electrifying GO Transit, the report, was written by Greg Gormick, a leading rail transportation and transit consultant and journalist.
http://jgossblog.blogspot.ca/2011/05/no-little-plan-electrifying-go-transit.html