canada's train cuts - a guide to dumbsizing
TRANSCRIPT
Canada’s Train Cuts
A Guide to our National Showcase
Rolling into the sunset…
Flowers at Moncton station: a fitting memorial to Maritime train service?
Is this Canada’s passenger rail policy?
• Slow down schedules
• Cut train frequency in half
• Lock passengers out of stations
• Mismanage capital investments
• Break intermodal connections
• Let railroads tear up the tracks
“Modernization”…It depends where you live…
In Canada, “modernization” too often means…
• Cutting frequency in half (Maritimes)
• Cutting speed in half (northeastern New Brunswick)
• Bus duplicating train service(Maritimes)
• Lengthening trip times (Maritimes; Montreal-Toronto)
• Abandoning downtown stations(Edmonton and Victoria)
• Tearing up tracks(Northeastern New Brunswick)
In the U.S., “modernization” more often means…
• Adding new frequencies (southern Maine)
• Increasing speeds (southern Maine)
• Integrating bus connections (US midwest)
• Extending routes (northern Maine)
• Opening new stations (northern Maine)
• Renewing tracks(northern Maine)
Gliding past our small towns
You can wait outside in the cold, and peek through the windows at the waiting room your taxes paid for. But it’s locked, so you can’t go inside. And if you’re in a wheelchair, you can’t board the new wheelchair-accessible train cars. You’ll get stuffed into a van and hauled off to Moncton.
A Canadian Train Glossary…Spin talk…
• “Focusing our efforts”
• “Service adjustments”
• “Responding to demand”
• “Modernization”
• “A more human way to travel”
Plain English…
• Cutting rural access to improve urban access
• Cuts to train frequency
• Discouraging demand by lowering capacity
• Calculating cost without understanding value
• Removing wheelchair lifts from rural stations, and locking passengers out of the waiting room
Two worlds, Two views (choose one)
The view from the freeway and the airplane…
Canada is a bunch of airports linked by in-flight movies
The future of our cities is the suburban business park with lots of free parking
Towns are freeway exits with truck stops
Nobody needs trains anymore
The view from the train…
Canada is a diversity of landscapes, communities and people
The future of our cities is in downtown places for people
Towns are centres for heritage and culture
Trains are a link between rural Canada and our cities
Truro trains: Is this all we’ll have left?This mural extends the whole length of the Via station in Truro. It shows how small towns value their train service. Trains through this station have been cut to tri-weekly. (Note the octopus serving dinner in the diner!)
A “how-to” Guide for Dumbsizing Passenger Rail
• Ignore seasonal peaks when cutting frequency
• Switch service to the day with the least demand (Tuesday)
• Limit train length, then turn passengers away
• Slow the schedule by an hour (or two)
• Restrict large items for which rail is best suited
• Don’t promote parcels or package shipments
• Let the railroads tear up the tracks
Railtown, NS: No trains, and soon no tracks…Other places have Transit Oriented Development next to train stations. Wolfville, NS lost its service in the 1990 Via Rail cuts. So the rail line is disused and the station is a library. But this nice development, ironically called Railtown, reminds us of what rural Canada could have had – regional commuter trains just a few steps from home.
How will you spend your $1.13?
• Saving the Intercolonial Railway would cost each taxpayer a one-time charge of $1.13
• What would you have done with all that money?
Park for half an hour?
Make five calls from your local phone booth?
Buy a small coffee?
Pay your library fine?
Let’s call their bluff!
When they say…
• “Rail best serves distances under 800 km.”
• “Lightly used stations don’t need staff.”
• “We’re just responding to demand.”
• “We have to be more efficient.”
We can say…
• “So where’s our train between Saint John and Moncton?”
• “So let’s add new flagstops to serve more places!”
• “So why are people being turned away?”
• “So add enough frequency so crews don’t have to spend nearly a week away from home.”
What can we do about it?
• E-mail the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and
Communities, Hon. Lisa Raitt at [email protected]
• Text your friends urging them to e-mail her too.
• E-mail your MP: To find him or her, go to
http://www.parl.gc.ca/ContactUs.aspx?Language=E and type in
your postal code.
• Ride a train (while you still can), and send photos to friends
• Join Transport Action Atlantic to stay informed and show you
care. Find us at http://atlantic.transport-
action.ca/membership.html
• “Like” https://www.facebook.com/SaveOurTrainsInNorthernNb