The Honourable Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities and Minister responsible for Quebec, and Mr Michel Després, Quebec Minister of Transport and Minister responsible for the National Capital Region, are pleased to announce that their governments have committed to contributing $16.5 million to innovative public transit initiatives as part of the Urban Transportation Showcase Program (UTSP) in Gatineau, Montreal and Quebec City.

These contributions will help put electric buses into service in Old Quebec, and in Gatineau, implement various measures designed to make public transit more attractive and user-friendly in a corridor that will accommodate a combination of regular buses and hybrid diesel-electric buses. In Montreal, the Société de transport de Montréal is also planning to put hybrid buses into service.

“Canada’s New Government is proud to be working with all levels of government and transit authorities to encourage Canadians to incorporate public transit into their lifestyle. This will be a legacy for future generations,” said Minister Cannon. ” Today’s announcement is a step towards making public transit more energy-efficient and more attractive to riders.”

“These projects are perfectly in line with the objectives of Quebec’s Public Transit Policy, to which we have introduced an innovative component, and the Climate Change Policy, which were tabled in June 2006,” said Mr. Després. “The Public Transit Policy sets out the objective to increase public transit ridership by 8 per cent by 2012, and we are certain that we will meet this objective. I am also very pleased that one of these exceptionally innovative projects will be implemented in the National Capital Region.”

“Once again, Québec is demonstrating its avant-gardism in the area of new technology,” added the Honourable Josée Verner, federal Minister responsible for the Québec region. “This initiative highlights the importance of environmental issues to the people of Québec, and shows our Government’s commitment to implement solutions that will improve air quality and protect our environment.”

For Benoît Pelletier, Minister responsible for the Outaouais Region and MP for Chapleau, this announcement is yet another sign of the importance of the environment issue in the region. “The announcement of the hybrid bus in our city, and the Urban Transportation Showcase Program for all of Quebec and Canada emphasizes the importance of the environment on our daily lives. Residents of the Outaouais Region will have access to efficient, environmentally sound urban transportation services.”

In Gatineau and Montreal, the total cost of the projects is estimated at $19.7 million. The partners will contribute the following amounts:

• $6.4 million from the Quebec government;
• up to $4 million from the federal government;
• $2.2 million from the Société de transport de l’Outaouais (STO);
• $3.2 million from the Société de transport de Montréal (STM); and
• $3.9 million from the Société de financement des infrastructures locales, which is co-funded by the Governments of Canada and Quebec.

In Quebec City, the total cost of the project is estimated at $12.2 million. The partners will contribute the following amounts:

• $4.1 million over two years from the Quebec government;
• up to $2 million from the federal government; and
• $6.1 million from Quebec City.

Funding for these pilot projects is contingent on the signing of contribution agreements.

UTSP funds community showcase programs that highlight and assess ways of reducing transportation-related greenhouse gases. The program was developed following consultations with provincial, territorial and municipal partners, among others. Following a Request for Qualification issued across the country, eight municipalities were selected to present their strategies for facing these urban challenges.

Tags: bus transit, public transport, utsp, canada, quebec, gatineau, montreal, municipal

In the wake of several recent accidents, the federal government today is launching a rail inspection project to check nearly 1,300 miles of track across New York State for flaws that might lead to a train derailment among other new measures designed to improve rail safety in the wake of several recent accidents, Joseph H. Boardman, the Administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) announced during a visit to Albany.

“A safe railroad begins with safe track, but it doesn’t end there,” Administrator Boardman said. “Railroads needs to embrace a ‘culture of safety’ and find new ways to prevent the kind of accidents that have disrupted lives and commerce and shaken our confidence in the safety of tracks,” he stated before climbing aboard a federal track inspection vehicle called the T-16 to observe an inspection of track from Albany to Schenectady.

Boardman explained that during the next two days the T-16 will inspect the heavily used CSX tracks from Albany to Buffalo, including the lines to Niagara Falls and to Ripley at the Pennsylvania border. The itinerary will take the T-16 through Oneida, Rochester, and Cheektowaga where major derailments have occurred in recent days and months. The inspection will measure whether the two track rails are level and if the width between the rails is acceptable to avoid derailments.

The Administrator added that last month he directed another federal track inspection vehicle, known as the T-18, be used on CSX tracks in New York. The T-18 will inspect for weaknesses in the track structure such as bad crossties or poor connections between the rail and crosstie that could cause the rails to dangerously widen when a train rolls over that section of track.

And, in order to build a baseline for evaluating a railroad’s ‘culture of safety’, the FRA will begin a quality assessment of the CSX rail inspection program, starting in New York and then extending it to their entire network. Boardman said he is interested in learning what criteria CSX uses to determine how frequently the company inspects its own tracks beyond current federal requirements, if track improvement decisions are made differently when a line has hazardous material or passenger rail traffic, and how track problems are identified and resolved including the use of technology to find flaws. The results of this risk reduction approach will be used to guide similar FRA evaluations of other railroads, he added.

Boardman also said that he met with CSX senior executives to discuss the railroad’s recent safety record and the results of a focused inspection on CSX property conducted in January. In addition, FRA is performing a safety review of railroad bridges in western New York.

Tags: dot, fra, rail safety, railroads, trains, new york, albany, buffalo, oneida