Category: Campaigns

Update on Rural Lynx project

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Here’s the latest on the Rural Lynx project in Southwest New Brunswick. The following was published in the Telegraph Journal on Sept. 1, 2016:

 

Southwest transit authority optimistic following meeting

Derwin Gowan, Telegraph-Journal

ST. STEPHEN • A meeting this week on funding for a proposed Charlotte County bus service went well, according to people who attended. However, the Southwest New Brunswick Transit Authority Inc. (SWNBTAI) still needs funding commitments by the end of the year to put the planned Rural Lynx service on the road, president Stan Choptiany wrote in an email after the meeting in Tourism, Heritage and Culture Minister John Ames’ Charlotte-Campobello constituency office in St. Stephen.

SWNBTAI board members met with Ames and New Brunswick Southwest MP Karen Ludwig’s executive assistant Marlene Chase. Ludwig called him later, Choptiany wrote. The MP indicated “strong support” for Rural Lynx, he wrote.“She encouraged the Board to apply for stage two infrastructure funding. The deadline is the end of September. We discussed application strategies.”

The SWNBTAI grew out of the former Charlotte County Transportation Working Group which used funding from the provincial Economic and Social Inclusion Corporation and the Southwest New Brunswick Service Commission to develop a business plan. Rural Lynx would make two round trips per day connecting Charlotte County communities with each other and with Saint John , aimed at people going to work, attending university and community college, medical and legal appointments and other business. The business plan projects that Rural Lynx would need an annual operating subsidy, as do other transit systems, starting at about $325,000 but dropping to $200,000 as ridership grows. Choptiany has argued that the province could fund this out of money it already spends, for example, on transportation for social assistance recipients attending medical appointments in Saint John .

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Charlotte County bus group continues push for bus funding

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The Southwest New Brunswick Transit Authority Inc. is continuing to push for funding to run buses between St. Stephen and Saint John NB. The group continues to be concerned about the additional isolation of rural areas in Southwest New Brunswick as public transportation options have disappeared, and many public services have been centralized to Saint John.

In a CBC article, Board president Stan Choptiany is quoted as saying “Rural isolation is very real for us, and we believe we have a well-researched business plan that indicates that a transportation service would be efficient and would actually save the government money in the long run.”

Read the full article here:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/bus-route-charlotte-county-1.3725396

TAA supports the groups’ initiatives, and hopes to see public funding come through!

Scotia Rail Development Society continues efforts to save Cape Breton rail line

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The Scotia Rail Development Society (SRDS) was set up last year in response to plans from the Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway to shut down and abandon its rail line from St. Peter’s Jct. to Sydney on Cape Breton. The SRDS has been actively campaigning to prevent the removal of the line, holding public meetings, gathering signatures on a petition, and looking for solutions to help keep the line in place.

Transport Action Atlantic continues to support the efforts of the SRDS to preserve the Cape Breton rail line, and supports many of the same principles regarding the role that rail should play in the transportation network of the province.

The SRDS, in association with the Sustainable Transportation Action Team (STAT) of the Ecology Action Centre in Halifax, has issued the following position statement regarding the railway and their ongoing efforts:

 

 

Scotia Rail Development Society logo

Cape Breton’s Contribution to Paris Agreement on Climate Change

The Scotia Rail Development Society (SRDS) is calling for Nova Scotians to encourage their MP to support the railway on Cape Breton Island. SRDS, aligned with the Sustainable Transportation Action Team (STAT) with the Ecology Action Centre, is advocating to keep the railway.

Railways are a driving force in the economy offering the cheapest and cleanest form of ground transportation. For almost twenty years railway companies have been allowed to regulate themselves and abandon lines with almost no government intervention or concern for the communities they serve. There is blame on the railway companies as well, being profit driven, forcing traffic to trucks because it is cheaper for them to truck it on tax-payer funded highways than to run a train on lower traffic lines that they, the owner, have to maintain. Is this really better for the communities, economy and the environment? How about protecting Nova Scotia taxpayers’ investments in our highways, by diverting more truck traffic to the railways? The rail could help trucking companies that face driver shortages and in the long run, unstable fuel prices. Trailers or containers on flatcars also enable trucking firms to offer their drivers shorter runs so that they can be at home with their families instead of sleeping in their overnight cabs.  Continue reading “Scotia Rail Development Society continues efforts to save Cape Breton rail line” →