Transport Action Canada

06/02/2026

Last week Transport Action Ontario President and Transport Action Canada director Peter Miasek was invited to be a part of a panel on Alto HSR at the Canadian Institute's Urban Transit Infrastructure Symposium in Toronto.

Peter shared an in-depth chronology of the project as well as our comments and ongoing concerns including:

- Alto needing to move faster to ease legitimate rural concerns. Global experience shows that impacts can be accommodated

- A large absence of information that was used in the decisions that have lead us to this particular project including ridership projections, corridor options, and a business case

- The absence of any information on why revnue-risk procurment approach was chosen.

- The risk of erosion of existing local services versus today's levels

He also flagged Canada's need for a strong and healthy VIA Rail today for a strong and healthy Alto tomorrow which can be realized by continuing to invest in improvements to existing corridors that benefit both passenger and freight operations.

05/29/2026

💭 Friday afternoon dreaming... If you could snap your fingers and make one improvement to public transportation in Canada, what would it be?

05/28/2026

While this is great to see, we must wonder why the public has had to wait until a project was completed to develop something that might have been planned from the get-go with a transit-builder that actually worked closely with the public sector. It's hard to measure the effects of public projects that are planned in such a myopic manor, but this is a clear example of what we miss out on.

To span at least 38 kilometres and link to existing bike paths and industrial parks and nature parks.

05/28/2026

We would like everyone to consider how much the public has benefitted since the privatization of CN in 1995:

Reduced passenger services? ✔️

Reduced freight capacity? ✔️

Greater private profit? ✔️

The federal government would be making a big mistake if they follow through on an idea to privatize Canada’s airports

05/27/2026

🎉 🚲️ Bikes are back on VIA Rail Canada!!

We love to see such a popular option brought back for travellers, though we're a bit disappointed that it took so long.

Bringing bikes back on board re-opens so many opportunities for passengers to explore their destinations or make their last-mile journeys.

Initial services allowing bikes are limited to select trains on the Quebec City-Ottawa corridor, but we hope to see the program expanded quickly so we can properly celebrate this win for passengers!

Read more from VIA here: https://media.viarail.ca/en/press-releases/2026/rail-reintroduces-board-bike-services-ottawa-quebec-corridor

📸 Jeangagnon Wikimedia

05/27/2026

Social policy affects transportation just as much as any other policy area, from transit to freight. While it is good to see some social responsibility, the move from CN to curb homelessness across its network is an admission that just like with public transit, it affects the bottom line, and our economy writ large.

05/26/2026

C'est bon de voir cette service populaire pour un autre été. La multi-modalité avec intégration des tarifs est nécessaire pour quelque système de transport fonctionnel.

Depuis vendredi dernier, les navettes fluviales du ARTM - Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain sont de retour pour une nouvelle saison!

Et bonne nouvelle : vous pouvez embarquer votre vélo à bord gratuitement! Une option pratique pour combiner transport actif et transport collectif!

Pour planifier vos itinéraires vélo avec les navettes, rendez-vous sur lequebecavelo.ca 💙

05/26/2026

Marathon Ontario has received a federal grant to build a new freshwater port. Being so close to a cross-country freight rail mainline we think it would be foolish to build a new port without a rail link. The less freight hitting the rails means more emissions and more trucks on already taxed Northern Ontario highways.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/port-of-marathon-revitalization-update-9.7205101

05/26/2026

TransLink , the Toronto Transit Commission, and the STM - Mouvement collectif have banded together to jointly make a pre-budget submission to the federal government.

They're asking for:
- A reversal of the $5bn cut to the public transit development fund announced last year
- A streamlining of approvals for shovel-ready projects for the fund
- Committing to maintain the fund in the long-term

'Major projects' require long-term planning, sustainable funding enables that. We hope the federal government agrees.

Read the budget submission here:https://www.stm.info/sites/default/files/media/Affairespubliques/Memoires/large_transit_systems_joint_2026_pre-budget_submission_english.pdf

05/25/2026

The recent opening of the REM Anse-à-l’orme branch is a game changer for Montreal. However, how riders are to actually get to those stations leaves a lot to be desired.

Access by all-modes to stations on the newly opened Anse-à-l’orme branch leave much to be desired.