From the Sarnia Observer:

It’s critical that Sarnia’s Via Rail station remains manned, says Mayor Mike Bradley, who will bring his concerns to city council Monday.

“We need to keep a presence at the station and ensure a high level of customer service continues, especially for people with disabilities who may need assistance, or people who don’t have a computer and need to buy their tickets there,” said Bradley.

The three Via Rail agents at Sarnia’s train station on Palmerston St. learned two weeks ago that they will be permanently laid off in September.

That follows the cancellation of one of two daily trains in late July.

Bradley met Wednesday with Garry McDonald from the Sarnia-Lambton Chamber of Commerce and George Mallay with SLEP (Sarnia Lambton Economic Partnership) to talk about saving local passenger rail service.

They were joined by passenger railway advocates from Michigan, who have fought to ensure that U.S. rail service doesn’t erode.

“We are trying to find solutions and it was interesting to hear what’s working in Michigan. They’ve done some fantastic stuff that goes above and beyond the call of duty,” Bradley said.

For instance, members of the Michigan Association of Railroad Passengers volunteer their time to open stations that AmTrak has left unmanned, said MARP’s chairman Bob Tischbein.

“I go in to stack the racks at the stations to make sure more marketing gets done and people are aware of train schedules,” he said. “We have good service in Michigan and we see constant improvement in Amtrak’s passenger counts.”

When train service is cut in Sarnia it impacts Michigan service, Tischbein said.

He spoke with Bradley, McDonald and Mallay about creating a public transportation system that combines bus and rail.

“We’re very interested in pursuing intermodal transportation with bus companies,” said Bradley.

Ideally, motorcoach service between Sarnia and London could ensure passengers easy access to numerous trains in and out of London, he said.

Combining modes of transportation is working in Michigan to keep rail and bus service busy, said Tischbein.

“AmTrak is talking about adding trains,” he said.

SLEP has requested a meeting with Via officials, and Bradley will ask city councillors for their support Monday.

“I’m very concerned about the future of our train station,” he said. “If it is unmanned, that will only serve to drive ridership down.”

Source: http://www.theobserver.ca/2012/07/11/local-officials-fighting-via-rail-cuts

From The Windsor Star:

Two local Via Rail workers will lose their jobs in cuts announced in June.

Via Rail is eliminating 200 jobs nationwide and reducing train service nationwide.

But Windsor Via Rail users were unconcerned Thursday about service cuts that will see four fewer trains coming and going from the area.

Windsor is losing the 5: 30 a.m. Toronto bound train on Saturdays and Sundays as well as the train that arrives from Toronto at 9: 50 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

The cuts stem from a business review that identified areas that weren’t efficient and had low ridership, said Laurent Caron, Via’s chief human resources officer. The cuts start July 29. Train routes in Southwestern Ontario include some of the company’s poorest performing routes where customer demand is very low, said a Via document describing the cuts. There is the possibility of train service being restored if the ridership improves, Caron said.

“We want to allocate resources to areas where there are increases in ridership like the Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal triangle,” Caron said.

The tourism industry is concerned about the service loss, said Gordon Orr, president of Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island.

“At the end of the day, Via has made a business decision based on supply and demand,” Orr said. “Any good business evaluates their business plan.”

Via will still be a good corporate citizen in the community with the construction of a new train station, which is due to open in August, and still operating at least three trains a day to and from Windsor, Orr said.

“There is no doubt in my mind that once demand increases you’ll see more trains added to allow visitation to the region,” Orr said.

NDP MPs Brian Masse and Joe Comartin blame the Conservative government for the service losses because Via’s budget was cut by $41 million over three years in the budget.

“The cuts will only further undermine ridership when investment is needed to improve service,” Masse said in an email.

Gail Franklin, a frequent Via traveller, said Windsor got off easy compared to service reductions in other parts of the country.

“I don’t feel that these ‘cuts’ are that severe,” she said in an email. “We all know Windsor is still a car city (regardless of the current state of the automotive industry), so few people will care if a few trains are cut back. Those that will be affected (like myself) are in the minority.”

About 100 Via Rail passengers waited to board the 1: 45 p.m. train on Thursday and many said they weren’t concerned about the loss of service because most people said they rarely use the train.

Rebecca Tessier travels by train once a year to come to Windsor to visit her grandmother, who lives in Toledo. Tessier said she doesn’t travel much and when she does, she takes the bus.

Muriel Putterman takes Via about five times a year to visit her daughter in Toronto. Her children don’t want her to drive the long distance by herself. The train is perfect for her because her son-in-law works in downtown Toronto and picks her up when her train arrives around 6 p.m. and drops her off to catch the weekday 7: 35 a.m. Windsor-bound train. None of the trains being cut by Via impact her lifestyle.

Paul Friedrichsen takes the train twice a year to visit family. He prefers the train over a bus because it’s comfortable and has clean washrooms. He said the train is faster than taking Highway 401, although he doesn’t own a car.

Bob Cole may be symbolic of the declining ridership. He was headed to Kingston Thursday after visiting his sister in Windsor. It was the first time in 20 years he’s ridden a train. He said the distance is too long to drive and he gets to read his book, Pierre Burton’s The Great Depression.

Source: http://blogs.windsorstar.com/2012/06/28/via-rail-cuts-means-fewer-trains-tofrom-windsor/

From Crain’s Detroit Business:

Organizers of the $137 million streetcar plan for Detroit’s Woodward Avenue are assembling a list of private-sector companies to operate the system on a concession basis.

Part of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s requirement for up to $25 million in capital funding is that it wants a list of potential operators for the system.

The line will not be operated by M1 Rail, the private-sector organizer and financier of the streetcar project, or by any government agency such as the Detroit or Michigan departments of transportation or by the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments regional planning agency, said Matt Cullen, M1’s CEO.

“We didn’t contemplate building up a transit company,” he said.

M1 has an initial list of five private companies but hasn’t disclosed the names. The group is looking at the players in other markets with transit. M1 hasn’t completed its plans or criteria yet, but the operator also could be asked to design and build the system.

A French company’s track record

One potential operator is thought to be Lombard, Ill.-based Veolia Transportation Inc., which contractually operates transit systems in several U.S. cities.

For example, it has a 10-year, $560 million contract with the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority to manage the city’s three streetcar lines, 32 bus routes and paratransit service — which see a combined 12 million riders annually.

Veolia is the North American arm of Paris-based Veolia Transdev, which manages transportation systems in 28 countries and had revenue of $9.8 billion last year.

Under its New Orleans deal, all of the authority’s employees work for Veolia, and the company is responsible for all operations, safety, maintenance, customer care, routes, schedules, capital planning and grant administration.

That’s likely what M1 Rail will seek from an operator, according to an April document it filed with the federal government. However, it estimates that the 3.3-mile line between Hart Plaza and New Center (with a predicted 3 million yearly users) will cost only $5.1 million annually to operate, rising to $6.5 million by 2022, according to M1’s report to Washington.

Veolia also manages transit systems in Las Vegas, Boston, Phoenix, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Baltimore, Atlanta and Washington, D.C.

The company is familiar with Detroit — but not in a positive light.

Veolia sued the city of Detroit in federal court in 2009 for what it claimed was more than $5 million in non-payment for operating the Metro Lift paratransit service, which is bus service for the disabled.

The city settled the case for $2.5 million last year.

Messages were left for Judith Pardonnet, Veolia Transportation’s vice president of communications, and for Mayor Dave Bing’s press secretary.

Other players on the list

One of the world’s other major transit operators is also believed to be on M1’s list.

The Memphis Area Transit Authority’s three trolley lines, which are part of M1’s studies, are operated by employees of Mid-South Transportation Management Inc., a subsidiary of Cincinnati-based First Transit.

First Transit is an arm of FirstGroup America, the U.S.-based operation of Scotland’s FirstGroup plc, a transit operator whose holdings include Dallas-based Greyhound Lines Inc.

MATA’s operational budget last year was $58 million, which also included 33 bus routes and paratransit service. The system’s five-year contract with First Transit has a $200,000 annual management fee, and everything else is reimbursement of whatever operational costs are incurred, said Tom Fox, MATA’s assistant general manager for planning and capital projects.

Another trolley car line closely examined by M1 Rail — the 3.9 mile, $103- million Portland Streetcar system that opened in 2001 — is operated by a nonprofit public corporation, Portland Streetcar Inc. It feeds into a three-country regional system of trains and buses operated by the Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon.

There’s been no discussion of a nonprofit running the M1 line.

A matter of financing

“It’s not uncommon to have a private-sector entity operate a system on a contract,” said Leo Hanifin, dean of the college of engineering and science at University of Detroit Mercy. A director of the Michigan Ohio University Transportation Center, he also sits on the M1 board and is one of the authors of a study that led to the streetcar project.

M1 has said it will endow a $10 million fund to operate and maintain the system for up to 10 years, until 2025, at which point the group plans to donate the project assets and operating responsibility to a public agency, such as the proposed regional transit authority.

The group sent U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood its 1,200-page report on the streetcar plan in April, and he came to Detroit earlier this month to let M1 know that he needed more details.

“Now they want us to validate the operating plan. Who is going to operate it?” Cullen said. “We’re answering the fundamental question of how we’re going to do this.”

M1’s plan is a mostly curbside-running, fixed-rail streetcar circulator system, co-mingled with traffic, with 11 stops between Grand Boulevard and Congress Street. It will run in the median at its north and south ends.

Capital funding is coming from private donors, foundations, corporations, federal tax credits and a commercial loan. The operational funding plan is a mixture of fare box revenue, grants, and advertising and naming rights sales.

Source:  http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20120624/FREE/306249973/m1-rail-looks-for-private-operator