Quebec Transport Comission Approves Orleans Service Cuts For Jan.1 2015

[xcnken-/[e-mail] [Canadian-Passenger-Rail]]

Although this decision is not directly passenger rail related it provides all the more impetus to have Via's Chaleur reinstated.............
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Montreal Gazette story : http://www.montrealgazette.com/travel/Intercity+company+slashes+service+across+Quebec/10282359/story.html http://www.montrealgazette.com/travel/Intercity+company+slashes+service+across+Quebec/10282359/story.html


Intercity bus company slashes service across Quebec


Commission De Transport press release in French only :
http://www.ctq.gouv.qc.ca/actualites/details_accueil/article/autocars_orleans_express_un_niveau_de_services_reduit_sera_maintenu.html http://www.ctq.gouv.qc.ca/actualites/details_accueil/article/autocars_orleans_express_un_niveau_de_services_reduit_sera_maintenu.html


10 octobre 2014
Autocars Orléans Express : Un niveau de services réduit sera maintenu AprÚs avoir analysé l’ensemble de la preuve soumise lors des audiences publiques tenues à la fin de l’été dans plusieurs régions du Québec, la Commission des transports du Québec a rendu une décision (1.7 Mo) http://www.ctq.gouv.qc.ca/fileadmin/documents/secteurs/autobus/audience/Orleans/2014QCCTQ2497.pdf autorisant les réductions de services demandées par la compagnie Autocars Orléans Express inc.
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This runs contrary to politicians proclaiming how green Quebec is . Huh ?


K. Wadden Pointe Claire qc

[Tom Box [e-mail] [Canadian-Passenger-Rail]]

Post by xcnken-/***@public.gmane.org [Canadian-Passenger-Rail]
Although this decision is not directly passenger rail related
it provides all the more impetus to have Via's Chaleur
reinstated

Thanks for pointing out that news, Ken. To keep it on topic,
let's see how the existing bus service provides a substitute
(however mediocre) for the Chaleur, and how that will be
affected by the announced cuts.

There are currently two round trips a day between Rimouski and
Gaspé via the south side of the peninsula, closely paralleling
the Chaleur route. The bus crosses over the bridge from Cross
Point, QC to Campbellton, NB, then goes back to Cross Point to
continue its trip to Gaspé or Rimouski.

If you were going from Montreal to Gaspé, you could take the
Ocean to Campbellton, arriving at 07:49. You could then take
the bus, leaving at 10:33, and get to Gaspé at 15:30. You
could also get off at any of the Chaleur stops between Matapedia
and Gaspé, as the bus stops at all of them, and many more villages
besides. It's not a great connection in Campbellton, but it is
workable, and allows you to do the overnight Montreal - Campbellton
leg in relative comfort on the train.

For the return trip, you leave Gaspé on the bus at 13:30, get to
Campbellton at 20:38, and catch the Ocean at 21:49 for the overnight
trip to Montreal, arriving at Central Station at 09:15.

After the bus service cuts, there will only be one round trip a day
on the south side of the peninsula, and it will only go as far as
Grande-Rivière, not to Gaspé. It won't go to Campbellton, so
you'll have to transfer in Matapedia. Eastward, the connection is
still possible, but not great, as the train arrives in Matapedia at
05:50 and the bus will leave at 08:36, but westward it's hopeless,
as the bus will arrive at 10:21 and the train leaves at 21:49.

The bus will also make far fewer stops than before. Between
Matapedia and Grande-Rivière it will only stop in Cross Point,
Carleton, Paspebiac (near New Carlisle) and Chandler. It will roll
through the other towns west of Grande-Rivière without stopping, and
it won't go to Percé at all. Gaspé will still have one bus a day
to Rimouski, but it will go via the north side of the peninsula.
Connections between that bus and the Ocean in Rimouski are not
practical at all.

Elsewhere in the province, Orleans is completely eliminating its
service between Trois-Rivières and La Tuque. As far as I know,
that will leave VIA's 3/week northern Quebec trains as the only
public transport to Shawinigan, Grand-Mère and La Tuque.

Post by xcnken-/***@public.gmane.org [Canadian-Passenger-Rail]
This runs contrary to politicians proclaiming how green Quebec is.
Huh?

The decision was made by a regulatory agency, the Quebec Transport
Commission, not by politicians. As the commission said, it can't
order a private business to go on losing money forever. It will
just go out of business. That already happened in the Maritimes,
when Orleans Express's owners shut down Acadian Lines, which they
also owned.

I'm sure there will be calls for politicians to overturn the
commission's decision. I suppose that would require either
subsidizing Orleans (they already got a one-time grant of $450,000
from the province last month) or setting up a new government-funded
service to replace Orleans. Given the Couillard government's
current austerity drive, neither seems very likely to me, but time
will tell.

Tom Box
tbox at ncf dot ca
Port Hope, ON, Canada


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Posted by: Tom Box <tbox-***@public.gmane.org>
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[xcnken-/[e-mail] [Canadian-Passenger-Rail]]

Yes Tom. If fully realize that these semi-autonomous, independent provincial agencies are not directly operated or administered by elected MNA's. Nor can subsidies of this kind , temporary or not, go on forever.


Nevertheless I highly doubt that they' ll ever come out with decisions contrary to the implied directives of their employers i.e. the politicians who appointed them. With their pay cheques issued by the province as well.


One way or the other I see it as a bad decision. Another disincentive to encourage the use of public transit other than our cursed automobiles. Along with no support at the federal level for improvements at Via.


Until an election year comes around. HA !