High-speed rail link to airport on fast track
Province, Lavalin work out kinks stalling proposed train from Union Station to Pearson
August 05, 2008
Theresa Boyle
Urban Affairs Reporter
The province and a private-sector partner are reworking plans for a high-speed rail link between Union Station and Pearson airport in an attempt to satisfy naysayers.
"We have heard concerns expressed about the original union-airport rail link proposal and the province is currently in discussions with SNC Lavalin to find ways that the airport-rail proposal can be changed to address a number of these concerns," Nicole Lippa-Gasparro, press secretary to Environment Minister John Gerretsen, told the Star.
The province and SNC Lavalin, the company that hopes to operate the service, began talks this summer. That, coupled with a new system to fast-track environmental approvals on transit projects, leads Mike Sullivan, chair of the Weston Community Coalition, to believe the project is a fait accompli.
"It appears to be heading toward a non-stop train ... between Pearson and Union Station," Sullivan said. "I suspect that's what we're going to be faced with."
Premier Dalton McGuinty recently joined Mayor David Miller in endorsing the plan, bolstering Sullivan's belief the rail link is a foregone conclusion.
"Both Mayor Miller and Premier McGuinty have stated that Toronto needs what most of the world's biggest cities have, which is a rail connection between the airport and downtown," Lippa-Gasparro said.
Metrolinx, the body charged with creating an integrated transportation plan for the region, is also on record saying the rail link between Pearson and Union is important.
Lippa-Gasparro acknowledged Infrastructure Ontario is participating in the talks, but wouldn't confirm a media report the province wants a tentative deal by fall.
Infrastructure Ontario is a Crown corporation that uses "alternative financing and procurement" arrangements (known as public-private partnerships) to build projects. Montreal-based SNC Lavalin, won the bid to build and operate the rail link back in 2003.
The federal government has expressed a willingness to help fund a rail link, but it's not clear what role Ottawa's infrastructure funding plan announced last week will play.
Sullivan said his suspicions that the project was gaining steam were further aroused when Gerretsen's ministry recently introduced a new six-month environmental assessment process for transit projects. That replaced a system that could take up to three years.
The rail link has been stuck in the old process since October 2006, when the terms of reference for an assessment were sent to the environment ministry, where they have since been gathering dust.
SNC Lavalin, which has until the end of next month to decide if it will abandon the old process and begin the new one, wouldn't comment.
A rail link to the airport has been in discussion for a decade. Five years ago, the federal government introduced plans for what was then dubbed Blue 22, for the 22 minutes of travel time between the airport to train station. The link would have had one stop, at the Bloor West GO Transit station, and a one-way ticket would have cost $20.
But the project, which was to be completed this year, has stayed in limbo due to a lack of consensus, regulatory hurdles and community opposition.
Sullivan's group fought the original plan because increasing the number of tracks and high-speed trains would have closed three level crossings, dividing Weston in half. A $40 million compromise proposed in 2005 would mean putting tracks in a trench, reducing noise and allowing traffic to pass unimpeded across two of those streets.
If the plan goes ahead, the group hopes to see the trains stop in their community, along with nine others.
For example, Sullivan said it would make sense if the train stopped at St. Clair Ave W. and Eglinton Ave. W., where it could hook up with planned streetcar lines. It should stop in needy communities such as Rexdale, and near Humber College, he said.
"If they're going to do it, then make it into real public transit, make it into something that serves the people of Toronto, not just the business travellers," he said.
Meanwhile, the Weston group is concerned about SNC Lavalin's involvement, arguing taxpayers could lose out in a public-private partnership, leaving taxpayers on the line for hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure spending to get the rail link in place.
"We're giving a private company ... our money to run a train that most of us will never see," he said.
He said any contract between the province and Lavalin should stipulate the cost of fares and allowable fare hikes, location of stations and frequency of service. The contract should immediately be made public once it's signed and should include penalties for violations, he said.
Sullivan also expressed concerns that the original plan calls for using diesel rather than electric trains.
"If we're going to be world-class," he said, "let's not run 55-year-old trains."
