An all-Budd stainless steel extra holiday Ocean rolls east across the Tantramar Marsh near Sackville NB on December 30. PHOTO: Tim Hayman
The new management team at VIA Rail is evaluating the results of initiatives taken for the 2014-2015 Christmas and New Year season. In November the company announced three additional departures in each direction over the three-week peak travel period, to augment the usual tri-weekly schedule that has been in place since October 2012. And, for the first time in many years, VIA launched a newspaper and radio advertising campaign to promote the additional service.
The extra trains operated eastbound on December 18th, 22nd, and 29th, and westbound on December 20th and 27th, as well as January 3rd. The additional consists were all Budd stainless steel cars, which offered the lowest cost per passenger mile and flexibility to add extra coaches or sleepers if needed.
Martin Landry, VIA’s chief commercial officer, was cautiously optimistic about the outcome, acknowledging that the decision to add the extra holiday trains wasn’t made until November, and – despite the advertising campaign – really came too late for maximum impact. Nevertheless, total traffic over the holiday period was up 6 percent from the previous year.
“We knew we were late to the game, but we wanted to do it anyway,” he said, viewing the experience as a learning opportunity in finding solutions to dealing with what he calls the “super peaks” in traffic. “I’m not going to commit to anything right now, but I don’t think this is a one-off. It wasn’t a home run, but I’m not disappointed by the outcome…not as strong as I might have liked, but there were lessons learned.” Points to consider in retrospect include timing as well as the type of accommodation offered, given that the demand for economy seats was stronger than for sleeper space – which could be explained in part by the fact that only “sleeper-plus” class was offered on the extra trains. He also acknowledges that the student market segment is very important to VIA.
Susan Williams is VIA’s new GM for eastern Canada. She will be the featured guest speaker at TAA’s annual general meeting in Moncton on April 25.
Mr. Landry is also very enthusiastic about the recent decision to appoint a senior executive with responsibility for Atlantic Canada. Susan Williams, originally from Nova Scotia, will be based in Halifax and will be paying very close attention to the market in this region. Her mandate, he says, is “don’t assume anything,” and includes examining all possible options, such as how best to provide inter-city service within the Maritimes, and through service to Toronto.
In a February 3 news release, VIA said “Ms. Williams will be working to bring VIA Rail’s service offering in line with this part of the country’s needs and demands. This is one of the first steps of a larger strategy to better serve Eastern Canada.”
Brand-new New Flyer XD40 1189 shows off Halifax Transit’s new look
The newly-rebranded Halifax Transit has two major projects in the works. It is in the process of completely redesigning its network of routes and schedules. This has been underway for several months, and a first full draft will begin public consultations on February 19th. The intention was to provide a network built around frequent routes that might require more transfers, rather than once-an-hour or rush-hour-only routes that wound through neighbourhoods. It remains to be seen what the transit agency will actually propose.
Secondly, Halifax Transit will be receiving its new, fourth, harbour ferry this summer. It will be very similar in design to the current fleet, but will be intended to double frequency to/from the Woodside ferry terminal. The ferry will be named for a figure from Halifax’s history, with voting on the name conducted up until the end of January (results not yet available at press time).
At Transit Cape Breton, the implementation of service reductions announced earlier as a cost-cutting measure will be delayed. It will probably now be May before the new schedules take effect, to allow more time for the complicated process of developing a schedule reduced by 200 hours per week without causing too many problems for riders.
The agency also expects to take delivery of a new 30-foot Vicinity bus in May. The $290,000 vehicle is being built by Grande West Transportation Group of Vancouver. The manufacturer’s website claims this model sells for half the price of a typical 40-foot transit bus, while offering greater fuel economy, reduced emissions, and lower maintenance costs. Transit Cape Breton is hoping to purchase one new vehicle each year to update its aging existing fleet. Most current buses have logged more than a million miles, and are increasingly prone to breakdowns. There are also two new handi-trans buses on order, which are expected to be in service sometime this spring.
Fares on Fredericton Transit buses increased to $2.75 cash fare, $80.00 adult monthly pass, and $55.00 for student passes, effective January 2 – the second hike in less than six months. The annual pass for persons over 65 remains at $50.00, unchanged from the previous year. Students of St Thomas University have a bus pass included as part of their student union membership. UNB students have yet to agree to a similar arrangement, despite the willingness of Fredericton Transit to do so.
Meanwhile, bus service to Silverwood and Lincoln Heights received a partial reprieve. The routes were originally under threat of complete curtailment. The service reduction to two runs in each in the morning and afternoon peaks Monday through Friday was a compromise reached through the efforts of Councillor Scott McConaghy. There is no Saturday service on those routes. The changes were made too late for the publication of the fall transit schedule which did not show either route. This was corrected in the January 2015 printed schedule.
On other routes, the Carlisle service is half hourly through most of the day during the week, except Saturday when it reverts to hourly. Other routes are half hourly at the morning and evening peaks on weekdays and hourly for the rest of the day. Saturday service is hourly. None of Fredericton Transit’s routes run on Sundays and public holidays.
Saint John Transit services are presently under review. The utility far exceeded the annual budget limits set by the Saint John Common Council, and it will probably be forced to reduce routes and frequencies quite drastically. Low ridership, as a result of previous service reductions and reduced gas prices appears to have created a revenue problem. The COMEX rush hour-only express services to the eastern suburbs, which started with great fanfare a few years ago, have recently suffered a fall in passenger loadings, and this, together with the reluctance of the suburban municipalities to increase their share of funding, will probably result in reductions to the COMEX service frequencies.
Codiac Transpo continues to show slow but steady increases in ridership, but the City of Moncton has decided to engage an advertising agency to develop a marketing strategy and increase public awareness of the service. Codiac – owned by Moncton – also provides service under contract to Dieppe and Riverview. Routes serving Dieppe were beefed up about a year ago, and Riverview is now looking at a redesign of their service, but the Town Council will ultimately have to decide how much service they are prepared to pay for. At least one councillor isn’t convinced the existing arrangement is giving the Town the best bang for its buck. Cecile Cassista suggests it might be worthwhile for Riverview to explore the possibility of operating its own service, using smaller vehicles to interline with Codiac Transpo.
New Brunswick’s new provincial government has agreed to the request of Charlotte County representatives for a meeting regarding proposals for the provision of a public transit service between the county and Saint John. No date has yet been set, but the committee plans to propose a pilot project partly based on the cost savings that the Health and Social Services departments would achieve if their subsidized clients used the bus rather than taxis when travelling to treatment centres and hospitals.
With files from Michael Perry, Ashley Morton and Ted Bartlett
The owners of the Truro to Sydney rail line (Genesee and Wyoming) have been given permission by the Nova Scotia UARB to discontinue service on that section of the line between Point Tupper and Sydney later this year. The owners claim that there is not sufficient traffic volume over that subdivision to justify continued train operations, even with a Nova Scotia government subsidy to make it at least break even. The line between Point Tupper, with its heavy industry, and Truro operates in the black, and overall the whole between Truro and Sydney is profitable. Why would the owners want to abandon this section with prospects of potential future traffic good, infrastructure funds available for upgrades, and the Province’s offer to continue the subsidy?
The answer could be that by closing the line and liquidating the assets including the rails, other infrastructure and long stretches of property fronting on the Bras d’Or lake would bring immediate and handsome return for Genesee and Wyoming – much more than continuing operating the trains at break-even.
The Nova Scotia Railways Act was passed back in the 1990’s when several secondary lines in the Province were sold by the major railroads to short line operators, bringing them under provincial jurisdiction. Back in the 1990’s there was little thought given that when railroads close, rails removed, the buildings torn down and the yards vacated there is left what could be described as an environmental quagmire. The only sections in the act that dealt with abandonment of a rail line was that the Province would have the right of first refusal to the assets – which when looking back appears to have been an oversight.
The Province recently had to remove several bridges on an abandoned rail line in the Annapolis Valley at very high cost, and now potentially faces the same situation in Cape Breton where the environmental clean-up could reach many million of dollars. The Province is now in the process of amending the act and regulations so that the owner will be responsible to leave the property in a fit condition as part of the abandonment process. This is a good move for two reasons.
First: faced with the high clean-up costs on leaving, the railroad owners should be more financially accommodating in arranging a takeover by the province or another potential operator. As one person said to me recently, it is possible that the price could be as low as a token dollar as the owners abandon Cape Breton.
Second: If the Province takes over the line across Cape Breton as salvage, at least the proceeds of the salvage (rails, property) would offset the clean up cost which could balance out at a small gain or loss. If the line cannot be saved, the government would have control of end land use for purposes of hiking trails, commercial use or recreational parks, and it would be cleaned up properly.
All considered, the legislative action is the right move for the Province to take at this time, and I believe the amendments to the Railways Act will ultimately save the line across Cape Breton Island. The Orangedale whistle may indeed once again be heard.
