A Niagara At Large news brief from Doug Draper
While other regions in North America and Europe are turning to rail transit as an answer to gridlock on their highways, governments in Canada seem to be moving in the opposite direction.
Niagara, Ontario MP for the Welland area Malcolm Allen wants you to rally around the need for more – not less – rail tranist.
Last year, and even while neighbouring New York State is continuing to work with the Obama administration to build a high speed rail system it hopes Ontario and Canada may want to link through Niagara to the Greater Toronto Area, Canada’s Via Rail cut its passenger services last year to this border region and others across the province.
One Niagara, Ontario MP for federal New Democratic Party wants to hear from you if you happen to be someone who believes our governments should be investing more, and not less, in passenger rail transit. On that track, Malcolm Allen, the MP for the Welland Riding in Niagara, is inviting people from across the greater Niagara region to join him this Wednesday, February 20th for what he is billing as “a public discussion on the importance of rail service in the Niagara area.
The meeting, to begin at a7 p.m. in the community room at Welland Civic Square on downtown Welland, Ontario’s East Main Street, will also feature Greg Gormick, a transportation expert and advocate for rail transit from the public interest organization Transport Action Canada.
A statement on Transport Action Canada’s website, which you can visit at http://nationaldreamrenewed.com , reads as follows; “Can you imagine Canada without passenger trains? Probably not, but others can.”
“If they get their way, Canada will be the only industrialized nation without proper and effective rail passenger service. 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.”
Indeed, even after Allen organized this meeting to save Via Rail services from federal cuts in Niagara and other regions of Ontario, the provincial government’s Go Transit body has announced plans to charge people who use their rail services to park their cars at Go stations. It is as if our provincial and federal governments in Canada are going out of their way to discourage commuters from parking our cars at or near our homes and using public transit services more friendly to the planet.
We Canadians ought to be embarrassed to have governments with transportation policies that are this short-sighted, and this environmentally and economically unsustainable.
“Since the fall of 2011,” notes Allen in a recent media release, “the NDP has been advocating for a National Public Transit Strategy that would establish public transit that is fast, affordable and accessible. ….This is an excellent time to continue to highlight the impact that the VIA service reduction has had in on our community.”
Indeed, with the U.S. Barack Obama administration wondering how committed Canadians are to taking steps to reduce carbon emissions and take action on climate change, it is an excellent time for as many of you as possible to show up at a meeting like this and express support for more environmentally friendly means of transportation like rail.
While you are at it, contact your provincial MPP and the leaders of the three major parties in Ontario – Kathleen Wynne, Andrea Horwath and Tim Hudak – and let them know what a bad idea it is to discourage people from using alternatives to cars. Send the same message to your federal representatives.
(Niagara At Large invites you to share your views on this post below. Please Note that NAL only posts comments from individuals who also share their first and last names with their views.)
Niagara At Large 
The Province of Ontario under Dalton Mc.Guinty did away with the Polar Express the train that services the North of Ontario, even though our economic future will be the riches of the North. diamonds, rare earths and metals , plus the Arctic is now viable for ships to traverse, we will need Northern ports. we are ruled by dumb and obtuse leaders in this Canada of ours.
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Tis good to see Malcolm Allen concerned about VIA’s decline but …
– In countries with High-Speed Rail (UK, France, Japan, China) these trains only stop every 50-100 km; that’s what makes them high-speed. In other words, the Bullet or TGV will NOT help Niagarans travel out of Niagara without cars, because it likely wouldn’t even stop at St. Catharines or Hamilton.
– The main reason that VIA is cutting service through Niagara is immediately caused by the Ontario government’s expansion of GO Bus & Train service from Burlington to Niagara Falls. ls Malcolm suggesting that our provincial government should Cut the new, subsidised GO service to Niagara in order to restore the unsubsidised[?] VIA service?
– What would a federal NDP government do to help transit in small-town Ontario? That’s the spread-out Region of Niagara, folks. It’s unfair to the small towns & townships to run a Regional Transit that serves only our 3 bigger, small cities. (What’s the result of your research into the unique NOTL transit system, Doug?)
– GO busses are subsidised from fuel (& other) taxes which are partly paid by Greyhound, Coach Canada, etc. whose business is reduced by below-cost competition from GO. Something’s wrong with this picture.
Why dosen’t GO use its subsidies to hire Greyhound, Coach Canada, etc, to operate GO busses and extend more-frequent GO service into ALL of small-town and rural Ontario (eg. Port Colborne, Wainfleet, Fort Erie), where these private bus lines already operate? Why not use the same subsidy money to extend service everywhere, and get more bang for our buck?
– Almost forgot, GO plans to exand GO Trains into Niagara by building another canal skyway for trains (as if that will Ever happen with our massive deficit !). Instead, they could use the existing TH&B tunnel under the canal at Welland to get to Niagara Falls, thus leading development into Niagara South, not just St. Catharines. Why aren’t they doing this?
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Most of us are ashamed at any and all levels of government for so many reasons. This is just one more. Unfortunately this reason is unbelievably one of the nastiest, anti-planet ones. Don’t those who are pro polution have familys? Are they so narrow minded that they care nothing about what kind of a world their grandchildren and great grandchildren will be struggling to breathe in? Is this another case of “follow the money”? Perhaps I am just a nut who wonders if some of the dumb ideas are linked to who has financial interests in industries that will profit from a decrease in public transit services. Certainly no one in their right mind thinks that congested highways and extra exhaust emmisions can be a benefit to anyone. Greed seems to have a part in most things that are just plain wrong.
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VIA for the purposes of commuting before the cuts was a joke unless you were a banker who started work at 9:10am and you finished at 5pm. Pretty much useless and having taken it, found that while there were some passengers it certainly did not relieve any congestion and probably cost more to operate than it made.
Does anyone out there think people should live where they work? Shop where they live? I get the tourism end of things, but come on. Why should tax payers who do live where they work and shop pay for those that don’t. You know these types of projects are never self-financing and require huge capital, union employees …… to get off the ground.
I have no problem with self-sustaining programs. I have issues with subsidizing peoples lifestyles. So if this is something that can be funded by those who use it. Let it happen. Otherwise, we have bigger fish to fry first. How about some good healthcare!
Just sayin……
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Wow! I am in an unusual situation … I actually agree with two of the previous commenters!
Lorne White and Greg Middleton have clearly stated some of the key reasons behind the Via cutbacks.
High-speed rail in Canada is a non-starter, for the most part. At present there are only two cities that might (note: I said MIGHT) meet the criteria – Toronto and Montreal. You MIGHT get enough passengers to run a high-speed train between those two cities two or three times per day. There would be no need for stops in between because they would reduce the travel time. Someone travelling from Toronto to Montreal is not going to want to stop in Kingston if it makes their trip take more time.
There is barely enough interest in Niagara for GO service, let alone HSR!
I do support the move to extend GO service to Niagara, but it must be understood that the expansion of service comes with a cost. Are folks in Niagara prepared for that cost? How much will it increase their taxes? How many residents of St. Catharines use GO ON A DAILY BASIS (once in a while doesn’t count!)? How many people from Fort Erie or Welland will use it daily?
GO is a mass TRANSIT system, not a passenger rail system. Please do not confuse the two.
An inter-city (or region) transit system is built and operated for use by large numbers of people on a daily basis – to get to and from work. It is not designed for the occasional user.
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