PTC E-News 14 Friday, July 7, 2006
1 Local
1.1 Charlottetown Transit Gets a Financial Boost From Ottawa
1.2 Upcoming Events: Workshops, Meetings and the Fall Symposium
1.3 The Richmond Street View
2 National
2.1 Bus Riders in London, ON Indifferent to Tax Break
2.2 And If Canada Were to Be Attacked?
2.3 Ottawa Pledges Greater Focus on Clean Fuels and Public Transit
3 International
3.1 Public Transit Options Increasing South- and North- of the Border
3.2 French Transit Workers and Government Sign "Guaranteed Service" Agreement
3.3 Growing and Going Faster and Faster: Dallas Light Rail Doubles Up
1 Local
1.1 Charlottetown Transit Gets a Financial Boost From Ottawa
Charlottetown Transit and Pat and the Elephant received funding boosts on Thursday as Foreign Affairs and Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency frontman Peter MacKay presented the former with almost $ 2,000,000 in funding and the latter with a cheque for $ 125,000. MacKay said Charlottetown residents aren't the only beneficiaries of the money.
"It also means cleaner air (and) reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Public transit will also help make Charlottetown a more livable and attractive city by contributing to the mobility of all residents.'
Mayor Clifford Lee said transit has been a priority in the city for some time.
"It provides freedom to move for all citizens, especially students, seniors and workers, from the neighbourhood of East Royalty to the neighbourhood of Winsloe and all parts in between,' said Lee.
"It helps reduce traffic congestion on our roads and improves our environment through reduced greenhouse gas emissions. It's been talked about for many years . . . and has now become a reality.'
In addition to the nearly $2 million in funding announced Thursday, under the Public Transit Capital Trust announced in the federal budget this year, P.E.I. will be eligible to receive an extra $3.8 million over the next two years, conditional on a budget surplus.
MacKay also confirmed the federal government transferred $2.25 million, the first of two payments to the province through the agreement on the transfer of the federal gas tax revenues under the New Deal for Cities and Communities.
1.2 Upcoming Events: Workshops, Meetings and the Fall Symposium
Although the summer season can often signify a letdown with respect to community involvement and public education undertakings for advocacy groups, the Public Transit Coalition will be pressing ahead with a number of projects over the course of the next few months. When not at the beach, David MacKay will be following up on the highly successful transit workshops put on by the Coalition this past spring in
rural areas of the Island, and in addition to a slate of new presentations (such as the most recent trip to speak to the Gulfshore Development Group in Rustico), the Coalition will be pushing forward with meetings with MLAs and community leaders to keep the ball rolling on an Island-wide transit feasibility study. October 27, 2006 has been announced as the day for our Symposium on Social Equity and Public Transit, an event which will bring together our member groups, local politicians and representatives from academia to present formal papers on the connection between transit, accessibility and community inclusion on Prince Edward Island. Stay tuned to the blog for further information.
1.3 The Richmond Street View
Like bees to honey and flies at a wedding, politicians always seem to show up at the right time. The Guardian ran a story on its front page this week, Friday, July 7 to be precise, depicting Peter MacKay, Elmer MacFadyen and Clifford Lee in front of one of the new trolleys purchased by the City for the Charlottetown Transit system. Apparently MacKay "drove up" in the aforementioned bus, the city transit service's Knight in Shining "Blue" Armour, defender of the capital city's interests and promoter of community cheer. Peter MacKay may be all of these things; what he is not is confused. Ottawa has its priorities clearly in mind, and its purveying of funds for public transit on PEI is a welcome addition to our provincial coffer. The confusion, unfortunately, stems from this side of the Northumberland Strait. Our own elected officials, it appears, require further counseling with respect to their roles as "distributors" of these federal funds to the Province. Remembering that Ottawa has designated some $3,45 million over four years solely for PEI public transportation, Minister MacFadyen and cabinet need to be reminded that a transit feasibility study for the entire province is the next step towards establishing public transit across the Island. Charlottetown has reaped its reward from the ENTRA study: thanks to the diligent work of Bobby Dunn, Mike Cassidy, George Brookins and the entire driver crew and staff at Trius Tours (our transit operators!), our capital city can now be said to be on-par with the twelve other capital cities in our country. If we think of it, while we sit on our decks and enjoy the summer sun, maybe we need to write a few letters to our representatives in the Legislative Assembly so that, in the near future, Minister MacKay rides into Souris riding a sparkling new bio-diesel fuelled bus having hopped on in Summerside...
2 National
2.1 Bus Riders in London, ON Indifferent to Tax Break
Tax break? What tax break? It seems that transit users in London are neither here nor there when it comes to the brand new, made-in-Ottawa tax relief for monthly pass holders on Canada's public transit systems. In fact, most people asked had not heard about the transit pass tax credit that took effect Canada Day and could provide tax returns of about $75 — the cost of a one-month pass — this year.
“Oh really?” said Brenda Ferguson, when told of the tax break while she waited for a city bus at the corner of Dundas and Richmond streets. “I don’t take the bus that often ... my husband’s got the car.”
Her reason was different, but her reaction similar to that of several other people waiting for buses on a quiet Monday afternoon.
“No difference to me,” said Trudy Inch. “I get a medical bus pass.”
“I get it through welfare so I don’t pay for it anyway,” said James McCleod.
When announcing the tax break last year, Prime Minister Stephen Harper was quoted saying the initiative could encourage more people to take public transit, but a local transit official disagreed.
“I don’t see that happening,” said Ward 6 Coun. Harold Usher, who sits on the London Transit Commission. “People going to the counter and paying for a bus pass won’t see a difference there.”
To increase ridership, Usher said, the government should have offered the tax break up front rather than making it returnable at the end of the year.
“The fact that something like this takes effect today and nobody knows about it is very important,” he said.
2.2 And If Canada Were to Be Attacked?
Jul. 4, 2006. 08:23 AM
RICHARD HETU
Since Sept. 11, 2001, reliable sources have repeated the warnings: Canada, like any other industrialized Western country, is not sheltered from a wide-scale terrorist attack. And yet, for nearly 20 years we have been protected, day after day, by the grace of God, CSIS or luck.
Unfortunately, this state of affairs came to an end this afternoon in the Montreal metro.
What a contrast between the images of planes smashing into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York and images from July 5, 2020, in Montreal.
By evening, the web had started broadcasting live shots of the attack, caught on "smart video" by the public transit system.
There were no 9/11-type explosives; just the cold determination by terrorists to kill in large numbers, in my hometown.
The new cameras in the Montreal metro didn't miss a thing, or almost didn't. Installed after the Boston subway attacks, they scan every centimetre of the system — waiting areas, trains, tunnels and platforms — producing video images that are transformed immediately into digital data.
This surveillance system, the fruit of Quebec innovation, can detect, categorize and follow objects or people of interest according to user-defined specifications.
In principle, it can receive real-time alerts and react proactively to threats. It is the very pinnacle of technology.
But will the video of the attack one day be shown on Canadian television?
Tonight, broadcasters completely censored it, bending to the requests of authorities who have vowed to find and punish the person or people responsible for a leak that allowed a small-time blogger in Vermont to stream images of the attack over the Internet. These made their way around the globe in seconds. On their websites, Canadian news sources were forced to tell the story in words and photos only.
Here are the facts: Between 5:19 p.m. and 5:24 p.m., on July 5, 2020, at the peak of the evening rush hour, five individuals wearing baseball caps get up from their seats in five different trains all heading for Berri station, the busiest in the metro system.
From a gym bag, each of them pulls out a portable spray gun, similar to the Canadian Model 5 tear-gas ejector. Then turning around slowly, they spray a fast-acting nerve agent into the air in each of the five cars. The passengers do not know that the gas, Tabun, can kill by inhalation or contact with skin within 20 minutes. It doesn't take them long, though, to realize they are the victims of a chemical or biological attack.
How long has this kind of threat been talked about! In the packed trains, the cameras record panic spreading from face to face. However, these same cameras are unable to make out the features of the faces hidden under the terrorists' caps. In each of the besieged trains, some 10 seconds pass between the start of the attack and the opening of the car doors.
The passengers' first move is not to subdue the terrorists, but to flee the gas-filled cars. The terrorists follow them, gassing an increasing number of passengers in their wake. Roughly another 10 seconds pass between the doors opening and the terrorists being gunned down by police.
Thanks to the smart video, the attack alert was set off the moment the terrorists brandished their spray guns. Nevertheless, over the course of the 20 to 25 seconds that followed, hundreds of passengers would have inhaled the fruit-scented gas that paralyzes the respiratory system and causes the lungs to constrict.
In the wee hours of the morning, the number of victims is unknown and no one has yet taken credit for the attacks. One thing is certain, according to commentators, who can't avoid the circumstantial cliché: Canada will never be the same. Knowing what happened to the U.S. after the attacks of 9/11, this is not particularly reassuring.
July 6, 2020
No one could accuse Canadian authorities — municipal, provincial or federal — of not having taken the threat of chemical or biological terrorism seriously. After the VX Boston subway attack that left 197 dead and 461 wounded, they poured every effort into attack prevention and disaster management. Thus, the different levels of governments agreed on a specific strategy in the event of an attack — the Equinox Plan — which was put into effect yesterday.
Hospital staff was mobilized to deal with the victims at specific facilities in seven major Montreal hospitals, as designated by the federal and provincial health ministries.
Alerted at the same time as police, ambulance workers, firefighters and other emergency staff, all wearing protective suits, arrived at Berri station shortly after the terrorists were gunned down. Thanks to sophisticated equipment, ambulance staff identified the type of gas used in the attack and recognized with consternation that there was nothing they could do for the majority of the victims.
Tabun, a gas created in 1937 and used by Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War, belongs to a group of toxic and infectious agents for which Canada no longer has a vaccine or antidote, says a Montreal newspaper, citing anonymous sources within the federal government. At a time when threats seem to evolve with the seasons — and biotechnological progress — Montreal hospitals do not deal with it any more.
Did the terrorists know? Conspiracy theorists were not the only ones to wonder this upon hearing the first count of the victims: 310 dead and only 15 wounded, a tally that attests to the superior quality of the gas. As in many Western countries, including the U.S., France and Britain, the makeup of antidote, antibiotic and vaccine stocks are government secrets in Canada. The vaccines to which the government has access or, more to the point, the vaccines or antidotes to which it does not have access in sufficient quantities — or at all any more — is information that terrorist networks would be eager to put to use.
This raises the question on many people's minds: Could there be a traitor or traitors among us?
If there is paranoia, it is but one of the manifestations of the shock felt today from one end of Canada to the other. Sorrow, sympathy, patriotism and anger are also in the mix. On television and radio, in newspapers and on the Internet alike, politicians, experts, and citizens have expounded on the hateful and insidious nature of the attack.
"Despite advances in genetic invention, gas is still probably the most powerful and effective instrument of terror available," states an expert. Another opined: "The possession of these weapons gives terrorists the opportunity to blackmail the governments of small and large countries, to sow the seeds of hate and panic in the population in general."
Yet another asked, "Why on earth does Canada not have an antidote to Tabun any more? Of all the neurotoxic agents, isn't it the easiest to make?"
In Ottawa and Quebec, opposition parties have demanded public inquiries into the makeup of stocks of strategic health products The issue is not only crucial in the event of a chemical or biological attack, but also in the possibility of a pandemic.
Ten years after the installation of hi-tech cameras in the subway, people rarely raise concerns about privacy
While Montreal and Quebec authorities wait for these inquiries, they have attempted to reassure metro users by promising to introduce new "protective" measures.
In particular, they have announced the installation of sophisticated detectors that can recognize weapons, plastic explosives and chemical, biological and radioactive products.
Each subway turnstile should soon be monitored by one of these detectors. Employed in many North American subways — New York, Boston, Chicago and Toronto, among others — the system should cause no slowdown of service, unless there is an alert.
The technology has been available since 2014, but it would require an attack before it made its appearance in the Montreal metro.
As for the cameras, they will continue to scan everything in their path, and not only the activities of potential criminals or terrorists. Ten years after their installation, it is rare that people raise privacy concerns.
We live in a time where safety comes first.
July 7, 2020
We've been saying it non-stop since the attack: On July 5, 2020, the Canadian psyche received a devastating shock; its population, long accustomed to peace, now finds itself at war with an unknown enemy.
Not only does responsibility for the attack go unclaimed, but authorities, scorning the media's repeated requests, refuse to release any information on the terrorists killed in the subway.
Canadians of all stripes have pointed the finger at radical Islamists, either homegrown or imported. Neo-Nazi groups have gone further by burning down mosques in Montreal, Toronto and Calgary, among other cities. Authorities have appealed for calm.
Still today, the media show restraint. Yet the coincidence is remarkable: The attack in the Montreal metro occurred one week after Canada's official refusal to recognize the new Islamic republic born out of the revolution in Saudi Arabia.
In so doing, Ottawa followed in the footsteps of Washington, where the Republican administration is ready for action.
The Canadian psyche definitely did receive a shock, but certain reflexes remain.
Yesterday, a Toronto columnist wrote that the Tabun attack drove a final nail in the coffin of the Quebec separatist movement.
"The separatists want to create a country where the army would be abolished and replaced with a peace force. There is no more peace, not even in Quebec," he wrote.
Reaction came swiftly. This morning, the Republic of Quebec commentators — the francophone ones, to be more accurate — reacted to this comment with irritation, indeed, indignation.
Separatist or federalist, Quebec commentators were united in their condemnation of the Toronto journalist's lack of tact.
"If the Tabun attack calls an ideology into question, it isn't Quebec separatism, but rather Canadian multiculturalism," wrote one Montreal columnist, having already attributed the attack to radical Islam.
"This ideology should have died the day Ontario renounced plans to institute Sharia law for family litigation. Alas, it still continues to serve as an argument for our fundamentalists."
July 8, 2020
After the shock and the mourning, here is the surprise. The Tabun attack wasn't linked to Sept. 11, 2001, as we had thought, but rather to March 20, 1995.
Its perpetrators are presumed to be part of a religious organization more closely resembling the Aum Shinri-Kyo sect, responsible for the Sarin attack in the Tokyo subway, than Al Qaeda, sponsor of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks.
The Canadian prime minister dropped this bombshell this morning. At the same time, he announcing the arrest of the leaders of the Canadian sect, named "Supreme Victory," whose headquarters are located in the Eastern Townships in Quebec.
Known for its apocalyptic prophecies, the organization has small offshoots in all Canadian provinces as well as in several U.S. states.
Like the suicide bombers, its disciples are representative of the ethnic diversity of North America.
During the sect's last public declaration, less than a year ago, its leader, known as Victor I, predicted a series of spectacular events signalling the end of civilization.
As usual, no one took it seriously.
2.3 Ottawa Pledges Greater Focus on Clean Fuels and Public Transit
Federal Minster for the Environment Rona Ambrose had some encouraging words for Canadians concerned about public transit in her speech for the opening of CUTA's Clean Air Day Sustainable Transportation Campaign in Edmonton. Here is a small excerpt from her remarks:
"Our new government firmly believes that the transportation sector plays an essential role in assuring air quality in Canada. Transportation is one of the largest sources of air pollution in Canada. In some of our urban centres, it accounts for up to two-thirds of smog forming pollutants.
To address this, we will clean up the air that Canadians breathe by encouraging them to get out of their cars and onto public transit. We will invest up to $1.3 billion in urban transit infrastructure public transportation, plus an estimated $1.1 billion over 5 years in the form of a tax credit to help with the cost of monthly transit passes. Increasing the use of public transit will help reduce traffic congestion in Canadian cities and fight air pollution
Increasing the use of public transportation will also help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Based on CUTA information that there were almost 1.6 billion urban transit rides in 2004 and an average emission of 2.8 kilograms per 10 kilometre trip, urban transit users avoid about 4.5 Mt of greenhouse gas emissions
But that’s not all. Our government will help Canadians make cleaner fuel choices by acting to increase the average renewable fuel content in gasoline and diesel fuel to 5 percent by 2010. The use of biodiesel in public transit vehicles will yield significant clean air benefits."
3 International
3.1 Public Transit Options Increasing South- and North- of the Border
Here's an interesting post from www.carjunky.net:
Dear EarthTalk: Where I live in Connecticut, our highways are parking lots many times a day. Isn't this an ideal situation for public transit? Why isn't it happening? -- John Moulton, Stamford, CT
An increasing number of public transit options are coming online throughout North America, but those of you idling alone bumper-to-bumper in your cars might not know it. Indeed, lack of knowledge about public transportation options may be the largest impediment to widespread acceptance of more efficient ways of getting around. Driving your own car back and forth to work every day is not as convenient as it once was, and public transit options are now faster and undoubtedly generate less stress and pollution.
In Connecticut, the state-owned CTTRANSIT moves 27 million people a year on well-appointed local and express buses serving all metro areas. And two full-service commuter rail lines, Metro-North and Shore Line East, routinely take riders longer distances. Similar services are available in many urban and suburban areas across the U.S. Municipal websites are the best place to find transit options, routes and schedules.
The best thing to happen to encourage public transit usage has been high gas prices. Over the last year the average price of regular unleaded rose in the U.S. by 76 cents, with prices now $3.00 or more almost everywhere. And transit agencies report a correlation between high gas prices and increased ridership. The Utah Transit Authority says ridership is up 50 percent from last year on a 19-mile light-rail system in Salt Lake City. And Washington, DCs Metrorail has seen some of its busiest days ever during the last few months. In Canada, ridership has risen as much as 10 percent in cities like Vancouver and Winnipeg in step with rising gas prices, though cars remain the travel option of choice in the countrys eastern cities.
According to the American Public Transportation Association, 14 million Americans use one or another form of public transportation every weekday, while about 17 million people drive their cars instead. The organization estimates that public transit ridership has grown by as much as 22 percent--faster than highway or air travel--since 1995. And a recently conducted Harris Poll concluded that the American public would like to see rail-based public transit have an increasing share of passenger transportation.
Meanwhile, Canadians have embraced public transit even more than their neighbors to the south. An estimated 12 million Canadians--including more than a fifth of all commuters in Toronto--use some form of public transit. Transportation analyst Paul Schimek found that public transit use is almost twice as high per capita in Canada as in the U.S. Also, car use in Canada is almost 20 percent lower per capita. Schimek attributes the differences to traditionally higher gas prices as well as more compact urban development than in the U.S.
Analysts point to the strength of the American highway lobby as the reason why Americans have been slow to embrace public transit. It has worked directly with lawmakers over the years to encourage road building and private automobile use to achieve, in the words of a General Motors ad of days gone by, the American dream of freedom on wheels. Back in Connecticut, some urban planners have been pushing the idea of turning crowded Interstate 95 into a double-decker highway in places to ease congestion.
3.2 French Transit Workers and Government Sign "Guaranteed Service" Agreement
Representatives from Riders Groups, local cooperatives and transit companies in France came together on Tuesday to sign a government-sponsored agreement which will guarantee service on the nation's public transit systems should a strike or work stoppage occur. In the details of the accord, the signing parties, from transit systems to users and syndicates, all parties agreed on solving any future problems without cessation of basic services, and that services would be provided based on local needs and available transport means in extreme cases. In its most basic sense, the agreement reached outlines the necessity of open dialogue and communication of information between workers unions and transit operators for the benefit of their riders and community groups.
3.3 Growing and Going Faster and Faster: Dallas Light Rail Doubles Up
Dallas Business Journal - 2:21 PM CDT Monday
by Margaret Allen
Between now and 2013, Dallas Area Rapid Transit will more than double the miles in its light-rail system, thanks in large part to a $700 million funding grant from the Federal Transit Administration.
The grant, made official today at a festive red-white-and-blue signing ceremony at DART's light rail Victory Station at the American Airlines Center in downtown Dallas, is the second-largest the FTA has ever made to a transit agency, according to Sandra Bushue, FTA deputy administrator.
"This major investment means that commuters will have a choice when it opens in 2007," said Bushue, who was in Dallas Monday to make the official presentation.
The $2.5 billion DART expansion will span 21 miles and will consist of a new "Orange" line and a "Green" line. The two will run from Farmers Branch at the northern end of the Metroplex to Buckner Boulevard in south Dallas.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Dallas, said in comments during the ceremony that the FTA's approval of the grant shows DART's track record of successfully completing its rail projects has won the "complete confidence" of the federal transit agency, which is within the U.S. Department of Transportation.
"This funding wouldn't be here today if the Department of Transportation didn't know that this project will be on time, under budget and done right," Hutchison said.
While the 13-member DART agency wasn't the first in Texas to get a mass transit system up and running, she said, it's definitely made up for lost time and has now gained the lead over other mass transit systems that had an earlier start.
"Dallas has surpassed Houston and San Antonio with their committment early on," Hutchison said.
According to the agency, DART's bus and rail network has seen a 10.2% increase in its ridership for the eight months ending May 31 compared with the same time period in 2005. Ridership was 220,553 for the period, or nearly 21,000 a day, DART said.
