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Ed007Toronto
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www.thestar.com/News/article/179609
Feb 08, 2007 12:30 PM
Curtis Rush
Staff Reporter
With its rail performance under fire, GO Transit is making moves to sever its 40-year relationship with the company that runs most of its commuter trains.
CN Rail spokesperson Mark Hallman said today that GO Transit will put to tender the contract for rail crews when the current agreement expires this year. CN will not bid on a new deal, he said. CN currently provides crews for six of the seven GO lines, with CP providing crews for the Milton line.
GO wants an agreement that will allow it to penalize a company for late performance and the current deal contains no such clauses, according to Hallman.
GO says CN is the leading cause of problems with on-time performance, blaming CN for about one-third of the late trains in November and December.
CN has been providing crews since GO was established in 1967.
"It's their prerogative to make that call," Hallman said of GO’s decision to tender the contract. "This is a particular path that GO wanted to pursue and it's within their purview to do it."
He wouldn't say why CN would not be bidding on a new contract.
GO Transit turned down repeated requests for an interview with CEO Gary McNeil. Neither he nor GO chair Peter Smith returned messages.
Veolia Transportation, based in London, England, and Quebec's Bombardier have both said they are interested in running trains for GO. Veolia currently operates York Region's Viva buses.
CN will still run the track system on which most GO trains operate.
CN's Hallman said there would unlikely be any jobs lost because the CN employees would be reassigned to CN's freight operations.
Meanwhile, he says CN has dedicated two employees to troubleshoot several sections of the Lakeshore line, which was hit with many delays in January.
For November and December, GO trains were on-time in November 89 per cent of the time and 88 per cent of the time in December. Those figures are up slightly from October, when trains were on time only 82 per cent of the time, the worst-performing month in two years.
GO Transit's objective is to be in the low to mid-90s for percentage on-time performance.
GO Transit blamed CN for 35 per cent of the delays in November. It also blamed Bombardier, which maintains GO's locomotives, for another 13 per cent of the problems. GO itself took the blame for 22 per cent of the delays in November.
In December, GO Transit blamed CN for 33 per cent of the delays, Bombardier for 19 per cent, while taking responsibility for 21 per cent of the problems due to work programs. Problems that were created when CN reduced engineering crews on the Lakeshore line were cited as causing delays during Dec. 30 and Dec. 31.
Up to 16 per cent of the delays in December were attributed to vandalism, weather, crossing incidents and trespassing.
For GO, the Richmond Hill and Bradford lines continue to be the worst performing. The Richmond Hill line was the worst performer in November, being on-time only 75 per cent of the time. Bradford line was the worst performer in December, with its trains reporting only a 76 per cent on-time rate.
In both months, the Lakeshore east was the top performer, with 93 per cent on-time performance in November and 92 per cent in December.
Feb 08, 2007 12:30 PM
Curtis Rush
Staff Reporter
With its rail performance under fire, GO Transit is making moves to sever its 40-year relationship with the company that runs most of its commuter trains.
CN Rail spokesperson Mark Hallman said today that GO Transit will put to tender the contract for rail crews when the current agreement expires this year. CN will not bid on a new deal, he said. CN currently provides crews for six of the seven GO lines, with CP providing crews for the Milton line.
GO wants an agreement that will allow it to penalize a company for late performance and the current deal contains no such clauses, according to Hallman.
GO says CN is the leading cause of problems with on-time performance, blaming CN for about one-third of the late trains in November and December.
CN has been providing crews since GO was established in 1967.
"It's their prerogative to make that call," Hallman said of GO’s decision to tender the contract. "This is a particular path that GO wanted to pursue and it's within their purview to do it."
He wouldn't say why CN would not be bidding on a new contract.
GO Transit turned down repeated requests for an interview with CEO Gary McNeil. Neither he nor GO chair Peter Smith returned messages.
Veolia Transportation, based in London, England, and Quebec's Bombardier have both said they are interested in running trains for GO. Veolia currently operates York Region's Viva buses.
CN will still run the track system on which most GO trains operate.
CN's Hallman said there would unlikely be any jobs lost because the CN employees would be reassigned to CN's freight operations.
Meanwhile, he says CN has dedicated two employees to troubleshoot several sections of the Lakeshore line, which was hit with many delays in January.
For November and December, GO trains were on-time in November 89 per cent of the time and 88 per cent of the time in December. Those figures are up slightly from October, when trains were on time only 82 per cent of the time, the worst-performing month in two years.
GO Transit's objective is to be in the low to mid-90s for percentage on-time performance.
GO Transit blamed CN for 35 per cent of the delays in November. It also blamed Bombardier, which maintains GO's locomotives, for another 13 per cent of the problems. GO itself took the blame for 22 per cent of the delays in November.
In December, GO Transit blamed CN for 33 per cent of the delays, Bombardier for 19 per cent, while taking responsibility for 21 per cent of the problems due to work programs. Problems that were created when CN reduced engineering crews on the Lakeshore line were cited as causing delays during Dec. 30 and Dec. 31.
Up to 16 per cent of the delays in December were attributed to vandalism, weather, crossing incidents and trespassing.
For GO, the Richmond Hill and Bradford lines continue to be the worst performing. The Richmond Hill line was the worst performer in November, being on-time only 75 per cent of the time. Bradford line was the worst performer in December, with its trains reporting only a 76 per cent on-time rate.
In both months, the Lakeshore east was the top performer, with 93 per cent on-time performance in November and 92 per cent in December.
Hopefully this will do something in the end