Upper Canada Railway Society Box 122 Station "A" Toronto, Ontario V
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INCORPORATED 1952 ^ ^T ^- ' NUMBER 480 OCTOBER 1989 UPPER CANADA RAILWAY SOCIETY BOX 122 STATION "A" TORONTO, ONTARIO V MUCTC, ex-CPR Beaconsfield (Quebec) station, recently refurbished, on the Lakeshore commuter route. July 6, 1989. , „ . , The interior of the refurbished MUCTC Beaconsfield station. The stairway at right rear passes beneath the tracks to reach the eastbound line. At far left is the second exit to the westbound line, where the agent's bay window used to be. The ceiling, now beamed, opens to the location of the former second storey; the roof dormers are now skylights. The ticket booth is at right. July 6, 1989. —Bob Sandusky October 1989 UCRS Newsletter 3 VIA cutback process insults public intelligence BY GARTH CAMPBELL Reprinted from The Globe and Mall Mr. Campbell is an economist who retired recently as vice-president must examine the effect of each on the environment and on of marketing for VIA Rail Canada after 40 years in the land use. transportation industry. He was vice-president of passenger services Next, the r^arious costs must be compared, including all for Canadian National when VIA was formed. Mr. Campbell now hidden subsidies and government-support services. After all, lives in East Selkirk, Manitoba. most government support for transportation is hidden — except for VIAs debt and subsidy, which are very visible, indeed. In the field of transportatioii, customers know what they want, The study also should show how good a service the public's so the market decides what thrives and what does not. money can buy and for how many people. WiU there be Naturally, something that is obsolescent, poorly presented, over• unpleasant surprises down the road, in the form of maintenance priced and difficult to use will be rejected. or renewal costs? However; if the public is then accused of having abandoned To allay pubHc suspicion and improve its own credibilify it, don't be surprised if people become indignant. And if any royal commission should be given sufficient scope and consumers also suspect that their choices have been deliberately authority The commissioners must be people the public trusts narrowed or distorted by the actions or neglect of bureaucrats, to conduct a thorough and objective investigation. politicians or corporate managers, indignation will turn to anger In this light, it is sad to think that eight years have elapsed and thoughts of redress. since former transport minister Jean-Luc Pepin's 1981 butchery Canadians feel there is something fundamentally wrong in of VIA. Sruely something could have been done before now. the way transport-spending priorities are being set. They are There is nothing new about the problem; rail-passenger service convinced that rail service has never been given a chance to has been more or less in a state of crisis for decades. show what it can do, and they want to know who to blame and That is why the process we are going through is an insult what can hi done. to the intelligence of sensible people. The government has This perception is strengthened by the massive upgrading managed not only to defy all the rules of fair play and logic, of rail-passenger services in other countries. Granted, some are but to fan the flames of regional alienation at the same time. densely populated, but others, such as Australia, are as sparsely The crude and wholesale maimer in which VIAs long• settled as Canada. This feeling that rail service has been treated distance services are being eliminated must demonstrate that unfairly is probably what unites people in their suspicion and Ottawa cares for only one part of Canada. If people in Central anger over the latest round of VIA Rail cuts. Canada, where alternative transportation is so readily available, Of course, it is difficult to visualize the need in Canada for don't share this feeling, the gulf between the heartland and the a level of service that really doesn't exist here. Yet there is a rest of the country will grow wideg possibly for good. For feeling that we may be missing a bet. politicians who claim to be concerned with national unity it For example, Canadians generally recognize that they face seems a strangely myopic way to proceed. monumental and immediate transportation problems — Heading into the next century, Canada is paying the price congestion, pollution, access, safety and cost — that already of having opted to move people around almost exclusively by threaten to overwhelm highway and airline transport in parts of highway or air. Only now are we beginning to realize what this the country. has cost us, and will continue to cost us, in monetary and Failing to examine the contribution that rail transport might human terms. make in solving these problems before eliminating key VIA The transportation choices we make are largely determined services is short-sighted, or worse. by the choices we are given, not the other way around. We Even if rail can't make a positive contribution, the have been told often enough that governments are responding possibility is certainly worth exarnining. The bland confidence to pubhc demand for highways and airports. exhibited by those who have decided that trains have no role in That is a half truth at best, but consider as well that our transportation futnre is something to marvel at. equally insistent demands for rail service have been largely This doesn't mean people should be impressed by Ottawa's ignored. Now what little rail service remains is being cut in promise to appoint a royal commission to study the future of two. rail service. This seems tantamormt to opening the bam door; Unless we inject a degree of fairness and balance into our shooing out the horses, and then calling in some experts to transport system, we could go through the next century lurching decide whether we need horses at all. from crisis to crisis. The future will be pre-empted by bad, The only way to make such an exercise credible is to hold short-term decisions, by expediency and by a slavish devotion to the inquiry and consider its findings before VIA service is outmoded conventional wisdom. decimated. Otherwise the suspicion will remain that the Let us hope that this worst-case scenario does not come to commission is being used to rabber stamp a decision already pass. However 40 years in the business tell me not to count made. on it. Any comprehensive study must compare the ability of the various modes of transport to meet the public's needs. Then it 4 UCRS Newsletter October 1989 Upper Canada Railway Society The Newsletter is published monthly by etter Upper Canada Railway Society News P.O. Box 122, Station A, Toronto, Ontario M5W 1A2 Pat Scrimgeour, President 778-0912 Editor - Stuart I. Westland Rick Eastman, Vice-President ^494-3412 RO. Box 122, Station A, Toronto, Ontario M5W 1A2 Art Clowes, Treasurer 960-0063 Assistant Editor - John D. Thompson, 416/759-1803 Gordon C. Shaw, Secretary 889-6972 19 Glencrest Boulevard, Toronto, Ontario M4B 1L2 George Meek, Director 532-5617 A! Maitland, Membership Secretary 921^023 Activities Editor - Ed Campbell, 416/255-1924 Chris Spinney, Director 752-6997 Motive Power and Operations - Pat Scrimgeour Al Faber, Director 231-7526 22 Prust Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M4L 2M8 Membership dues for the calendar year 1990 are $22.00 Rolling Stock and COS Equipment - Don McQueen for addresses In Canada, and $24.00 for addresses in 38 Lloyd Manor Crescent, London, Ontario N6H 3Z3 the U.S.A. and overseas. Please send inquiries and changes of address to the Membership Secretary at the above address. Society Notices Membership dues for 1990 The board will continue with eight directors tmtil the Membership dues for the calendar year 1990 have been set to Annual General Meeting, when one additional director will be be the same as for 1989. For addresses in Canada, the price is elected for a term of two years. $22.00, and for addresses in the U.S.A. and overseas, $24.00. Nomination for election of directors Student memberships are available to those 17 years of age or A nominating committee has been formed to search for members younger at $15.00. If you renew your membership before willing to serve on the board of directors. Four directors will be November 30th, then a $1.00 discoimt applies. Members in the elected at the 1990 Annual General Meeting: three for a term U.S.A. may if it is more convenient, pay $21.00-in-U.S. of three years each, and one for a term of two years. The job currency. Please attach your cheque or money order to the as director requires a commitment of effort and time, and offers renewal form on this Newsletter. the satisfaction of serving your feUow members. There is no Change of address for Newsletter correspondence requirement for directors to be resident in the Toronto area, nor The Editor of the Newsletteg Stu Westland, is in the process of is there a requirement that a director be a long-time member. moving. Until a new address is published in the Newsletter If you would like to suggest a name for consideration, or please send your contributions and comments to the Society's if you would hke the committee to consider your name, please post ofiice box, or to one of the section editors, as listed above. contact one of the five members of the committee. They are Rick Eastman (494-3412), Harold Clover (281-8416), Pat Rick Eastman appointed Vice-president Scrimgeour (778-0912), Pat Semple (923-9123), and Chris The board of directors has appointed Rick Eastman to serve as Spinney (752-6997).