Fast Buses To Ferry In Suburbanites During Turcot Build

The MTQ continues to put on a dazzling display of incompetence and profound misunderstanding of basic sustainable transit by planning to have fast buses bring people in and out of the West Island during the Turcot Build. All the expropriations, all the disturbances of neighborhoods, all the construction traffic nightmares and the entire raison d’etre of their Turcot plan was keyed on the idea that traffic on the main highways would never have to stop. Irony abounds.

Photo: David Boily, La Presse

Story in Cyberpresse

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Guest Blogger – PasqualeLM Reviews MTQ Presentation In Saint Henri Monday Night

MTQ presents Turcot to Sud-Ouest in a failed public relations attempt
On Monday night, over 300 citizens from Montréal’s southwest borough packed a St-Henri community center to see what the MTQ, Québec’s provincial transportation department, had to say about its new Turcot project. Work on the $3-billion highway interchange project is expected to be carried out between 2012 and 2018, with preparatory work beginning this spring. The new Turcot will see vehicle capacity increase, from 290,000 to over 300,000 cars per day. So much for Kyoto!
A few dozen protestors greeted visitors outside, only to take their cause indoors while chanting “Turcot, pas d’autos!” Then the MTQ’s show began. A green-washed PowerPoint presentation, deceiving and misleading artist renderings, and an impressive, yet overly-treed model of the future Turcot interchange.

The room was filled with local elected officials: borough mayor Benoit Dorais and all of the borough’s councillors, Richard Bergeron, leader of Project Montréal (until recently, member of Montréal’s Executive Committee in charge of urban planning), and even local Member of Parliament Thierry St-Cyr (who was not invited to the official presentation of the project a few months ago). Not to mention the members from various community, housing, cultural, social, public transit and environmental advocacy groups, including the Conseil régional de l’environnement.

At the front of the room, the MTQ’s regional director, the Turcot project’s director and assistant director, as well as a moderator were grilled all evening long. Two provincial political attachés also showed up, but they hid in the crowd and only revealed their identity when a resident pointed out that no provincial elected officials were present. They remained silent for the rest of the night.

Despite all of the pretty pictures and complex, sometimes technical, rehearsed answers from the MTQ, participants left with more questions than when they arrived. The MTQ’s officials endured over 40 citizens’ questions. Well-prepared, thought out questions ranging from the MP, to the architect, from the seven year old (yes, you read correctly!) to the seventy-something year old.

No mention of concrete steps for improved public transit (despite the PhotoShoped images of tramways and new European-style urban neighbourhoods), nothing on improving air quality, even less on noise pollution during and after construction.

The MTQ presented their project at Mayor Benoit Dorais’ request. And with work slated to start in the coming months and plans nearly finalized, many citizens questioned why the representatives even bothered coming. What impact could citizens have at this point? As for the residents who will soon lose their homes, the MTQ had even fewer answers for them: 106 units on St-Rémi Street and 8 on Selby Street are slated for eviction. Compensation will be three-months rent and paid moving expenses. But the MTQ insisted each evictee will be met individually during confidential negotiations. So much for transparency.

The presentation was a public relations disaster (even their twitter account master can’t give clear answers) and the hired PR firm clearly failed at their mandate. They probably spent all of their budget on graphics design, posters and an expensive promo video (view their pretty pictures at http://www.turcot.gouv.qc.ca and see for yourself).

Southwest residents have been fighting the MTQ for years. They cheered each other on as they each stepped up to give the MTQ a piece of their mind. It was touching to see how residents of an inner-city borough can care so much about their neighbourhood. Residents who don’t want to be evicted from their homes for the sake of urban sprawl, see and hear more traffic run above them, breathe in more polluted air, deal with health issues that don’t exist elsewhere on the Island (just ask Montréal’s public health department), and surrender their quality of life. We may have made some transportation and urban planning mistakes in the past, but with Turcot, it seems we haven’t learned anything from them.

And you can follow @pasqualelm on Twitter

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“West Islanders Of The Year” Are 2 Transit Activists

From The Chronicle,
“In less than a year, the grassroots campaign for better public transportation in the West Island created by former MNA Clifford Lincoln and former director general of the CLD West Island Georges Nydam has blossomed into a veritable coalition. Train de l’Ouest now has the support of most West Island mayors and MNAs of the area and has been formally recognized by Premier Jean Charest, Minister of Transport Raymond Bachand and Minister of Finance Sam Hamad. For this reason, The Chronicle pronounces Lincoln and Nydam as the West Islanders of 2010.”

Full Story here.

Everyone in the SouthWest knows that the government’s Turcot plan is just a bad idea, but Turcot, and all the health and transit issues it covers, is also a vital link for West Islanders. It’s great to see the efforts of these two gentlemen being recognized, and hopefully it will lead to West Islanders getting more involved in the transit issues of the day!

Clifford Lincoln at Lucien L’Allier

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Want To Discuss Public Transit On West Island?

Then CJAD has a program for you.

“Unreliable, infrequent, frustrating… these are some of the words that have been used to describe public transit on the West Island. We’ve heard the complaints for years but what is actually being done to improve the situation? We will find out on November 30th during a special 1-hour CJAD Town Hall broadcast live from Lucien L’Allier train station. The broadcast, from 4p to 5p, on The Ric Peterson Show, will include representatives from your public transit agencies; the Montreal Transit Corporation and the Montreal Transit Agency. They will be there to answer YOUR questions.

We encourage you to get involved. Join us at Lucien L’Allier train station and ask your question in-person. You can also call-in, text-in or post your questions on our CJAD Facebook page. We would love to hear what’s on your mind ahead of time as well. E-mail us your horror stories, complaints and questions at bettertransit@cjad.com.”
More here.

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STM wins the ’Stanley Cup’ of public transport for North America – Montreal Public Policy | Examiner.com

STM wins the ’Stanley Cup’ of public transport for North America – Montreal Public Policy | Examiner.com.

 

Bit behind on the  news “this” week, lol.

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At Lucien L’Allier

The folks from Train de L’Ouest were handing out flyers on Tuesday at the whatchamacallit train station, you know, that little hallway on one side of the hockey arena, and asking people to sign a petition. You can sign it here.
One of the first things you see when you come up from the Metro is the raging glory of the dumbest development in the history of the city, if not the whole country – building a hockey arena between commuter lines and a fully functional classic old train station. Do you want even dumber? One suggested project would be to build a train station south of Windsor station and bend these tracks over to that location! And people wonder why Montreal can’t get it’s transportation act together – sometimes you just have to laugh…

I have to admit that while these statues of hockey heroes work well in this plaza and do tell a huge tale of past greatness on the ice, they make me miss the old Forum.

Getting the word out.


Clifford Lincoln.

I walked around this area just to see what was there, get a feel for it, the massive effort that went in to this whole project and I could only draw one surrealistic conclusion-

Like I said, sometimes you just have to laugh…

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Train de l’Ouest Coalition Meets Tuesday At Lucien L’Allier Station At 4

‘“Train de l’Ouest” unites a group of concerned citizens who wish to see improved commuter rail service to Montreal’s western suburbs: the West Island, Ile Perrot and Vaudreuil-Soulanges.

We want the provincial and federal governments to fund the construction of new railway tracks exclusively for passenger use from the downtown Lucien Allier station to Ste Anne de Bellevue.”

More here.
This is a media event and everyone who supports better transit for the West Island is invited.

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Airport Train A White Elephant?

That’s the question Henry Aubin is asking in his column this week. And it’s a good one considering that the “747″ airport to downtown express bus has been a great success, more than doubling the anticipated ridership in just a couple of months. The whole concept of an express train from the airport to downtown has been flogged to death for decades and there still isn’t a consensus even if the City has recently stated a preference for the Central Station (CN) option instead of Lucien L’Allier (CP). Perhaps it’s time we threw in the towel on this one and just started focusing on improving rail transit to the West Island and beyond. Mr. Aubin points out that the new Turcot will (at least it should) include an express bus lane which will make the airport trip quick and painless, especially during rush hours. It’s always good to connect the dots in this way, something all transportation plans we have seen from all areas of government and private developers in recent years have spectacularly failed to do.
The airport bus just makes a lot of sense and saves millions and millions of dollars in just track that need not be laid. Heck, it s probably already showing a profit.

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Airport Shuttle Not Enough: Group

Article by Andy Riga in the Gazette suggests that there is no point in building an airport/downtown train that does not also serve residents along the way. No other city does that and considering that the infrastructure money coming from the fed and Quebec will probably be a one shot deal, it might be a good idea to come up with a better solution that intergrates commuter transit for West Islanders.

Airport shuttle not enough: group
If Quebec and Ottawa have $400 million to spend on rail service, it should go to commuter trains for Montrealers, not an airport shuttle for travellers, a new coalition says.

“Ordinary folks who pay the taxes should come first,” said Clifford Lincoln, who is coordinating the new coalition of mayors, business leaders and commuter and environmental groups.

Lincoln, an ex-West Island MNA and MP, said the coalition met for the first time Thursday, the day Mayor Gerald Tremblay came out in support of a $600-million shuttle that would run between Trudeau Airport and downtown’s Central Station. That plan, touted by Aeroports de Montreal, the airport authority, would need $400 million in government money, half each from Ottawa and Quebec.

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Interesting Statistics

US Freight transportation

The US Transportation Energy book states the following figures for Freight transportation in 2004:

Transportation mode	Fuel consumption
	BTU per short ton mile	kJ per tonne kilometre
Class 1 Railroads	341	246
Domestic Waterbourne	510	370
Heavy Trucks	3,357	2,426
Air freight (aprox)	9,600	6,900

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Transit Activists Of The World Unite!

It’s time.

http://groups.google.ca/group/mobilisation-turcot-montreal?hl=en

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Toronto Transit Activist Sees Results

Article in today’s Toronto Star. Sometimes the good guys win.

Three decades after Steve Munro saved city’s iconic streetcars, his influence continues

AARON VINCENT ELKAIM/TORONTO STAR

Tess Kalinowski
TRANSPORTATION REPORTER

Steve Munro looks equal parts Santa Claus and aging hippie, standing at the streetcar stop near the Christmas windows at Queen and Yonge.

The shoppers climbing aboard have no idea they are riding with the man who helped save the legendary 501 streetcar, along with 10 other routes still operated by the TTC.

Munro’s waist-long, grey ponytail is hidden inside his signature black leather jacket. But the bushy white beard is a head turner beneath his dark knitted toque.

The facial hair dates to 1972, the year Munro and a group of rail fans persuaded the city not to abandon its iconic streetcars. He remains the undisputed authority among a loose-knit group of unpaid activists whom TTC vice-chair Joe Mihevc affectionately refers to as the “transit geeks.” They convene at monthly commission meetings at City Hall. It’s their best chance to speak face-to-face with senior TTC officials and the city councillors who govern them.

In his own decade on the transit commission, Mihevc can’t remember a meeting Munro didn’t attend.

Munro seldom debates publicly. His influence is wielded more subtly, after careful listening. His blog is a compass for those intrigued by the physical and political complexities moving unceasingly behind regional transit.

While much of Munro’s reputation rests on old battles, it’s his longevity and continuing influence that some believe make his ideas about urban transit more relevant than ever.

“Activists get involved and they either slowly lose interest or get discouraged … Steve’s been doing this for 35 years,” says Matt Blackett, publisher of the urbanist magazine and website, Spacing, where Munro writes a column.

It will be a landmark year for Munro in other ways.

When the TTC breaks ground next fall on the first of seven Transit City light rail lines into the suburbs, it will be in large part due to Munro’s vision, according to Blackett.

The city is touting the sleek, Euro-style Transit City plan as an opportunity to transform suburban streetscapes, including some marginalized neighbourhoods, by increasingly their density and giving new life to major avenues like Eglinton, Finch and Sheppard.

Mihevc, the longest sitting transit commissioner, says Transit City is a “dream come true” for Munro.

“He was the one who kept the candle burning during the dark days of the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s when light rail was not seen as a part of the city,” he said.

“There have been dark periods,” Munro admits at a late Saturday brunch near Broadview and Danforth. What’s sustained him, he says, “is maintaining some sense of what transit can be.”

Munro has other circles of interest beyond his encyclopedic knowledge of transit and trains. A film, theatre and classical music buff, he’s also a computer programming whiz who runs a tech team of about two dozen employees at the Toronto District School Board.

But he has loved the rails almost since he was born 60 years ago at Women’s College Hospital. He grew up riding the St. Clair car. On weekends his dad would take him to explore the city along the streetcar routes. Munro believes transit in Toronto needs to be about more than commuter service.

“Sixty per cent of TTC (ridership) is outside rush hours. Transit is not just for poor people. It’s not just a social service. I think we’ve got past the point where were doing this just for the poor people in Scarborough.”

There’s been a political evolution on the topic, he says: “Now there are politicians that can ask questions without me having to write them out beforehand.”

Councillor Gord Perks, elected in 2006 in Parkdale-High Park after a long history in the environmental movement, is one of them.

He has known Munro for 14 years and refers to him as a dear friend, calling him one of the “most multi-dimensional people I know.”

Munro is as accomplished with UNIX coding as he is at the keyboard, according to Perks.

But even those who regard him highly can find Munro challenging.

Mihevc admits they were at odds over the hotly contested St. Clair dedicated streetcar line.

“Once in a while when you’re tired and you’ve done everything you can, you don’t want someone reminding you there’s still more to do,” says Perks.

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