Comment 70319

By Fred STreet (anonymous) | Posted October 04, 2011 at 20:03:57

"The Liberals have a shopping list of projects from “the next phase” of their transportation strategy. This implies there was an earlier phase that was part of a strategy. All they’ve served up in eight years is a series of photo-ops to announce the same projects over and over again.

Of these skimpy, politically motivated offerings, the only one with any traction is the Liberal promise of two-way, all-day service on GO Transit’s rail routes, which they’ve announced twice before. It remains appealing. But a pre-election promise is one thing and post-election delivery is another.

If GO expansion is going to happen this time around in these straitened economic times, where’s the funding? Never fear, say the Liberals. Thanks to their repeated promises to roll it out, the required $6.8 billion is allegedly covered in future unapproved budgets, so it’s not a new cost at all.

Other details suggesting this is a real plan are similarly lacking. Will this be hourly or half-hourly service? Is there an agreement with Canadian Pacific and Canadian National, over whose lines many of these trains will operate? Will the new trains be electric or will hordes of noisy, emission-producing diesels thunder through neighbourhoods across the GO network? The Liberals are mute.

This is obviously another back-of-the-napkin scheme to grease a re-election bandwagon’s wheels. That’s one hell of a way to run a publicly owned railroad."

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/1064580--political-gridlock-on-transportation

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