Airport and Toronto train links again under study
Train comes full circle, back into vogue
Airport transit line, high-speed T.O. link suddenly feasible
ANDY RIGA The Gazette
January 15, 2008
|
To understand why two long-mulled train megaprojects are suddenly in vogue again, visit Dorval at rush hour.
Streams of cars arrive and leave Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport, often in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Motorists speed to and from Toronto on Highway 20. Planes take off for the short hop to Toronto. Travellers wait in long lines for taxis at the airport stand.
After decades of debate, study and neglect, some experts say the time is right for the proposed trains: a high-speed Montreal-Toronto rail link, and a light-rail transit line connecting downtown, the airport and the West Island.
Fuel costs are rising, there are growing demands to cut greenhouse gases spewed by aircraft and cars, and society is realizing vehicular traffic is a major drain on the economy.
On Thursday, the Quebec, Ontario and federal governments announced they will spend a total of $2 million to update previous feasibility studies of a high-speed train in the Quebec City-Windsor, Ont., corridor.
On the same day, it emerged that transit authorities and all three levels of government are studying plans for a “tram-train” light-rail project to provide the first direct public-transit link to Trudeau airport. Serving commuters and airport users, it would run from the West Island to downtown.
Trains would help reduce the production of greenhouse gases and alleviate the road traffic that Transport Canada estimates costs $854 million a year in Montreal including the cost of time lost to travellers, wasted fuel and increased greenhouse-gas emissions.
Economist Mario Iacobacci, director of research at the Conference Board of Canada, said the new government initiative will help determine whether benefits to the public (like fewer carbon emissions and less traffic) would justify the big investment of taxpayer cash. “These projects are not economically feasible on their own; they won’t make money,” said Iacobacci, who has worked as a consultant on European high-speed train.
The tramway-train envisaged for a possible new downtown- airport-West Island line would aim to cut car traffic at the airport and improve West Island commuter train service, which is now limited because of the amount of freight traffic on the tracks it uses. No cost estimate is available for the project.
Less pollution and traffic aren’t the only benefits of airport rail links. Fewer people drive to airports with train stations, allowing airports to shrink parking lots and tap the real estate for more productive uses, like business centres, hotels and malls. Full article
