 |
| Sarnia will host the first in a series of town hall workshops aimed at reviving Via Rail Canada. Art: J. Goss + Artifact Graphic Design |
J. Goss + Associates is a proud supporter of National Dream Renewed.
“We’re pleased to accept the invitation of the Sarnia Lambton Economic Partnership and Mayor Mike Bradley to launch this project in their city, which has long called for more and better VIA service,” says Harry Gow, past president of Transport Action Canada and chair of the National Dream Renewed project. “The decision to cancel half of Sarnia’s passenger trains is baffling, especially when the government is currently investing $923 million to renew VIA’s fleet and other capital assets. What Sarnia and other Canadian communities need is more VIA service, not less.”
The two-hour Sarnia National Dream Renewed workshop will be held on Saturday, September 8 at 10 a.m. at the Lambton Inn, which is located on the grounds of Lambton College at 1485 London Road.
To be conducted by Toronto transportation writer and policy advisor Greg Gormick, the National Dream Renewed will inform the public of the vast untapped economic, social and environmental potential of Canada’s national rail passenger service. Canadians will be asked for their views on how VIA can be reformed to sustainably provide a high-quality, cost-effective service similar to that provided in every other industrialized nation. The goal is to produce a blueprint for VIA’s revival and expansion based on the input of Canadians from Atlantic to Pacific to Hudson Bay.
“The Sarnia Lambton Economic Partnership (SLEP), which leads economic development in our community, is a vigorous opponent of the VIA cuts,” says Sarnia mayor and SLEP chair Mike Bradley. “Composed of business, labour, agriculture, educators and local government, SLEP believes in the need for a national transportation strategy for Canada in which passenger rail is a vital component.”
Transport Action Canada will also conduct a town hall workshop on Tuesday, September 18 in Stratford, Ontario, which is losing a significant portion of its rail passenger service under the federal government’s plan to eliminate $41 million in VIA operating funds over the next three years. The details of these and other National Dream Renewed workshops will be available on Transport Action’s dedicated website at www.nationaldreamrenewed.com
Says Gormick, “The current service cuts, as well as an internal government review of the future of our rail passenger system, are being undertaken without any involvement of the people who own VIA, namely the citizens of Canada. Many have told us they want to be heard. These workshops will provide them with that opportunity.”
The National Dream Renewed project is a joint initiative of Transport Action Canada and its five regional associations in Atlantic Canada, Québec (Transport 2000 Québec), Ontario, the Prairies and British Columbia. Transport Action Canada and its regional affiliates are non-profit organizations whose primary purpose is research, public education and consumer advocacy. They promote environmentally-sound transportation solutions and get actively involved in a wide range of issues, such as public transportation, safety, accessibility, energy efficiency, environmental protection, intermodal co-operation and government regulation.
-30-
For more information, please contact:
Harry Gow
(450) 787-3719 or (450) 743-4780 Ext. 223
hwgow@sympatico.ca
facebook.com/NationalDreamRenewed
Can you imagine Canada without passenger trains?
 |
| Transport Action's Harry Gow is urging supporters to unzip their wallets. Donate to Transport Action! |
It will make us totally dependent on less efficient and unsustainable forms of transportation. We will be socially, economically and environmentally uncompetitive with those other countries that are investing today in expanded and improved rail passenger service.
Today, VIA is once again being forced to chop services on what many consider already a minimal rail passenger system. A federal government cut of $40 million in VIA operating funds over the next three years has already forced the discontinuance of several VIA trains. More cuts are coming.
What can you do about it? You can join us for one of the numerous National Dream Renewed town hall workshops we will host across Canada this fall. This is your chance to learn more about VIA and voice your opinion about its future.
What else can you do? You can become a National Dream Renewed sponsor. Your donation will help Transport Action take the workshops across the country and give all Canadians a voice in this latest attack on VIA.
Your donation cheque for this important public education, consultation and outreach project should be marked National Dream Renewed and may be sent by mail to:
Transport Action Canada
Box 858, Station B
Ottawa, Ontario
K1P 5P9
(Registered Charity 119268571RR0001)
Transport Action Atlantic
Box 268, Dartmouth, NS
B2Y 3Y3
Registered charity 131583999RR0001
You may also make your donation by Visa, MasterCard or via PayPal.com to
pay@transport-action.ca An official receipt for income tax purposes will be provided.
Please join us in ensuring we finally have the efficient, affordable and sustainable rail passenger service that Transport Action has called for since our 1976 inception as Canada’s only nationwide public transportation education and advocacy association.
Your donation will help to make the National Dream Renewed a reality!
BACKGROUNDER
The VIA Rail Canada cuts:
Starving a good iron horse to
death
On June 27, 2012,
VIA Rail Canada announced it was reducing service on six of its routes,
affecting cities and towns everywhere from Halifax to Vancouver, including many
that have no other public transportation options. This is the third major round of cuts VIA has weathered
since it was formed in 1977 as a publicly-owned Crown corporation with a
mandate to ostensibly revive, modernize and expand Canada’s rail passenger network.
The current cuts –
which began to take effect on July 29 and will continue through the end of
October – are reducing the frequency of service on the following routes:
·
Halifax-Moncton-Miramichi-Montréal
(the Ocean);
·
Montreal-Ottawa;
·
Toronto-Niagara
Falls;
·
Toronto-Stratford-London-Sarnia;
·
Toronto-Brantford-London-Windsor;
and
·
Toronto-Winnipeg-Edmonton-Vancouver
(the Canadian).
The reasons for the
cuts vary, according to who you ask.
VIA describes these service eliminations as “part of its ongoing
modernization” and “taking action to better meet customer demand.” Eliminating service and driving away
current and potential riders strikes many as an odd way to modernize any competitive
rail passenger service. It is
especially puzzling when one considers the strategic expansion under way on
other passenger railways around the world.
VIA maintains this
first round of cuts has nothing to do with the federal government’s reduction
of its operating budget. This
year, VIA’s funding was cut by $6.5 million. Two more cuts will reduce VIA’s operating budget by $15.1
million in 2013 and $19.6 million in 2014. The expectation is that the subsequent service cuts will be
even more severe. Inside sources suggest
all service on the Toronto-Niagara Falls, Toronto-Stratford-London-Sarnia,
Montréal-Gaspé and Victoria-Courtenay routes is in jeopardy. Nor is the future of the two remaining
eastern and western transcontinental trains secure.
Moreover, Transport
Canada is currently conducting an internal and highly-critical review of VIA’s
future. The public is not being
asked for input on this project, which will decide VIA’s fate.
These negative
activities are especially strange in light of the federal government’s recent
investment of $923 million in VIA’s capital renewal. It makes little sense to renew a transportation system that then
reduces many of its services. However,
VIA says additional trains will be added in the Montréal-Ottawa-Toronto
triangle at a time “to be determined.”
Even the claim of
impending service improvements on this small portion of VIA’s route network is
questionable. VIA’s investment
program has run into serious problems, ranging from the insolvency of the firm
contracted to rebuild the bulk of its rolling stock to cost overruns and
demands by one freight railway for more investment in infrastructure projects on
its lines that weren’t factored into VIA’s original budget.
The current and
future cuts will not improve VIA’s service offering to the public or boost its financial
performance. As has been proven by
other passenger railways, reducing train frequency doesn’t pay; it costs. The best example of this is on VIA’s
U.S. equivalent, Amtrak. The
quasi-public corporation has completed studies of its three remaining
tri-weekly long-haul trains; all other Amtrak routes have daily or better
service. Amtrak reports
less-than-daily trains incur high costs because “employees and/or equipment
have a one to two day turnaround delay during which employees receive held-away
pay and equipment sits idle without generating any ticket revenue.”
In light of Amtrak’s
positive experience with its numerous long-haul trains, it is discouraging to
hear the recently-appointed president of VIA, Marc Laliberté, commenting that
passenger trains don’t make sense for distances of 800 km or more. A quick look at the maps and timetables
of major passenger railways around the world proves this is clearly a mistaken viewpoint. The U.S. and Europe are served by
modern, efficient trains operating on numerous routes of 1,000 km or more.
If Canada is to
compete globally with other industrialized and emerging nations that are investing
public funds in the expanded, improved rail passenger service, a sea change in
government policy is required.
Canada requires a national transportation strategy that embraces rail
passenger service as a key component of a system of multi-modal services and
facilities. Other countries have
demonstrated there are solid economic, social, environmental and nationally strategic
factors that favour rail passenger investment.
In the U.S.,
respected organizations and government agencies such as the American Public
Transportation Association, States for Passenger Rail and the U.S. Department
of Commerce have determined that rail passenger investment produces numerous
economic, environmental and social benefits, including:
·
diversion
of traffic from other publicly supported modes of transportation;
·
job
creation during the construction or equipment manufacturing phases;
·
ongoing
jobs and economic spin-off from the operation;
·
savings
in health care costs due to diversion of traffic from less safe modes and
reductions in emissions that affect the public’s health;
·
savings
in national energy costs, given the higher energy efficiency and reduced fuel
requirements of rail; and
·
residential
and/or commercial development and economic activity in the areas surrounding
the stations and other facilities.