Rail Ways to the Future
Committee
Canada Transportation Act Review
Toronto, Ontario - - - - November 2, 2000
Chairmen and Panel Members,
RWTF is a small volunteer group interested in the efficiency and sustainability of transportation
in Ontario and Canada. RWTF is not affiliated with the transportation industry and is self
financing.
There are compelling 1) economic, 11) social, and 111) environmental reasons why rail in
Canada needs to be reinvented for freight and passenger carriage in sectors ranging from
transcontinental through regional to urban.
We will briefly discuss, supplemented by a print package of information, evidence supporting
some of the reasons according to the three categories listed above.
1V) we will provide evidence of support from across the province for a modal shift from rubber
to rail.
V) we will list strategies, which translated into federal policies, legislation and regulation, could
help to orchestrate a modal shift.
We will identify key components of the information package we are leaving with you.
1) Economics and Rail Renewal
Over decades the U.S. federal and state governments have had in force programs designed to
retain, improve and make available to short line and regional rail freight operators rail lines
which U.S. class 1 railways designate as surplus to their interests and operations. Senior
U.S. governments do this is the interests of maintaining geographic equity of economic
development opportunity, reducing road costs, reducing market access costs and reducing air
pollution. Leaving rail line purchases up to municipalities as in Ontario is not realistic
In Ontario we have allowed thousands of miles of such rail line to simply disappear. It was
only under the current provincial government that Short Line Railway Legislation was
enacted - which made it a little easier for some rail infrastructure to be salvaged. For most
rail abandonments, this legislation came too late.
slide of abandonments in Ontario from 1921 to 2000
Small Town Blues, Toronto Star, October 11, 1999.
Canadian class 1s are developing connections all across North America. But much of
Ontario (other provinces as well) has been left behind. A Kansas study of branch line
abandonments uses the term "foreclosure" for affected communities, due to the higher cost of
doing business only by road. We say that Canada/Ontario needs to play railway catch up.
11) Social Reasons for Rail Renewal
Four thousand premature deaths a year in Ontario are due to particulate and gaseous
pollution in large measure from the transport sector (15,000 Canada wide!).
2
slides comparing road and rail emissions.
Road collisions cost Ontario nine billion a year (MTO 1994 report).
247 Silverbirch Avenue Toronto, Ontario M4E 3L6 (416) 698-9005 Fax (416) 698-1905
We do not believe that it is possible to road build the nation’s way out of roads which are
currently congested and unsafe as a result.
slide of the Black-Hole Theory of Highway Investment
In three year’s time when for $100,000,000 a fourth lane each way is added to the QEW
between the highway 403 and 403 interchanges, traffic congestion will be right back to
where it is now
E.g. we contend that highway 407 was unnecessary as it was built parallel to an existing rail
line, the capacity of which could be increased.
111) Environmental Reasons for Rail Renewal
I wish to draw your attention to a document by Peter Wiederkehr of the OECD Environment
Directorate which was the keynote paper at the OECD Environmentally Sustainable
Transport Workshop held in Ottawa in October of 1998. This paper describes the modal
shifts required if Environmentally Sustainable Transport (EST) is to be achieved by 2030 as
compared with projected Business as Usual (BAU) scenarios.
Show the BAU and EST scenarios graphs for passenger, then freight transport in 2030.
Part of your package is a paper by the late John McCullum, past president of Transport 2000
Ontario and a member of RWTF entitled. Taking charge of Our Transportation Destiny. This
paper deals with the economic and environmental benefits for Canada of electrifying much of
the national rail system.
The oil map is shrinking world-wide. A serious shift to rail beginning now would help
Canada to prepare for the post petroleum era. It would also do much to help Canada in
meeting the Kyoto protocol.
I have recently heard it estimated that 85% of Canadian voters believe the environment to be
an important part of their election decision making.
1V) Support for Rail Renewal
There is growing evidence of public recognition of the unsustainability of attempting to
accommodate ever more trucks and cars.
This past summer our list of Ontario municipalities supporting the RWTF Rail Route
Banking Resolution grew to 26. Abandoned rail lines are irreplaceable multi-use corridors.
See the County of Elgin example in your package.
68 Ontario municipalities, so far, support the RWTF call for an Ontario Rail Renewal Task
Force1, including the 37 municipalities of the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association.
See this, the City of London and the just passed City of Toronto resolutions in your packages.
Nine municipalities currently support both resolution.
Four municipalities have copied us with their own rail friendly resolutions and positions.
To date: 98 Ontario municipalities endorse rail renewal.
1
Similar to the United Kingdom Strategic Rail Authority. Refer to the article in the package entitled, The
Environmental Benefits of Rail Transport and How They Can be Secured.
3
We recognize that there are new federal rail initiatives related to VIA and to urban transit
which if dependent on provincial financial participation, would present a problem here in
Ontario. But much more needs to be done. Here is our list for your consideration.
V) Recommendations for Rail Renewal
Infrastructure funding (federal/provincial/municipal/ public/private) to support
Environmentally Sustainable Transport:
- multiple track projects (e.g. double single track, double track to three tracks - we can
make a few specific recommendations)
- intermodal freight terminals (many smaller facilities to make truck access to the
railhead easier and lengthen the rail portion of the haul).
- intermodal vehicle and systems improvements
- improved railway signalling.
- high speed railway cross-overs
- road/rail grade separation
- acquisition of strategic abandoned rail lines (see RWTF Route Banking Proposal
included in the package)
- replace tracks and bridges etc. as necessary in co-operation with short line and regional
rail freight operators and transit authorities (urban, regional, intercity)
- grants for freight rail sidings
- examine collaboration between VIA and commuter systems, e.g. GO Transit. We have
a proposal for this not included in your package, but we will be pleased to present this
later.
- aggressive expansion of rail passenger and parcel services - New and renewed routes2
- financial assistance to short line and regional railways (see many U.S. examples.
Quebec and Saskatchewan also)
- development of diesel and electric multiple unit rail passenger cars (light rail in urban
settings and diesel rail cars for e.g. service to rural destinations - not unlike the former
interurban or radial lines)
- develop cottage country, tourist and skiing weekend passenger services
- put rail capital cost allowances on par with other modes and our NAFTA partners
- begin rail electrification with high traffic routes
- actively discourage private warehousing on public roads. See Sweden re commerce
competing by demonstrating environmentally friendly processes, including how they
transport.
- link transport improvements to efficient and environmentally friendly land use planning
to avoid rubber tired inspired industrial and residential greenfields sprawl
- full cost accounting by mode including all externalities
- controlled track sharing involving arbitrated cost recovery. Passenger services must
have full rail system access as a matter of principle
- encourage rail freight. See letter to three Ontario cabinet ministers dated September 24,
2000 re assisting truckers in dealing with increasing fuel costs
2
Base on origin - destination studies of existing traffic flows and future traffic projections linked to
efficient conservation oriented land use.
4
- consider serious improvements in long distance rail passenger services as a solution to
the serious multiplier effect of greenhouse gas emissions from aircraft flying at ten
thousand metres
According to John Rossiker who heads the newly created Rail Division in the Kansas State
Department of Transportation. "It is time to face facts. Railroad maintenance is a better
buy than highway maintenance. It’s cheaper and lasts longer." Mr Rossiker points out
that it costs about $4,000 a year to keep a mile of railroad in good condition." According
to asphalt road maintenance practices in Ontario, we estimate that road maintenance per
mile for a year is higher than rail by a factor of five. This does not include snow plowing,
policing, collision costs, etc. etc.
Read one of two 1990 letters from the Corporation of the Town of Chesley.
In summary, it is critical to design transportation policy that rewards efficiency and
sustainability.
We will be pleased to detail any of these points later and answer questions.
Thank you.
Ross Snetsinger