By Doug Draper
A campaign by a coalition of New York State municipalities and busineses to steer a high-speed rail system into the greater Niagara region from Albany and Manhattan is winning virtually unanimous from regional councillors on the Ontario side of the border.
Will these tracks running through Niagara, Ont. one day link with a high-speed rail system in New York?
The project has already received the blessing of a majority on the council following a presentation last week to the regional government’s planning and public works committee by Don Hannon, director of integrated modal services for the New York State Department of Transportation and a representative of the state coalition.
The Niagara, Ont. council’s support sets the stage for its political leaders and staff to get fully behind the High Speed Rail New York Coalition’s efforts to obtain stimulus funding from the U.S. federal government for the rail project. It also provides impetus for them to lobby provincial and federal governments on the Canadian side of the border to improve rail links from New York for passenger and freight through Niagara and the Toronto area.
“I would hope that (Ontario’s transportation minister and St. Catharines MPP Jim Bradley) would lend the staff support that is helpful to this,” said Patrick Robson, the Niagara regional government’s commissioner of integrated community planning during a recent interview with Niagara At Large.
Robson said he also hopes that as the province continues its environmental assessment review on improving the transportation corridor through Niagara to the U.S. border, that “we keep our options open” for a modern rail system that links with New York.
The provincial review is also weighing the option of building another major highway across the middle of Niagara to the U.S. border as an alternative to a busy stretch of the QEW running through what’s left of the area’s tender fruit-growing lands below the Niagara Escarpment.
New York official pitches high-speed rail plan to Niagara Ont. councillors recently.
Hannon told the Niagara councillors support from state representatives, municipalities and businesses on his side of the border for building a rail system for 21st century travel has been overwhelming.
“I go across New York State and I don’t find anyone who is against truly improving rail passenger service in our state,” he said. “It has bipartisan support across the entire state.”
Earlier this fall, the state coalition received a big boost when a nation-wide group studying transportation options for America’s future ranked the corridor between New York City, Albany and the Buffalo and Niagara Falls area as a top 50 candidate in the country for high-speed rail.
President Barack Obama has been a strong proponent for high-speed rail as an alternative to highway travel and there appears to be growing public support for alternatives to the cars and trucks that have been the dominate means of moving people and goods around for more than half a century.
For more information on New York State’s High Speed Rail’s efforts can be found at the following web page: http://www.nysdot.gov/recovery/sponsors/rail or http://nyhighspeedrail.ning.com/.
Niagara At Large 