Champlain Parkway and Amtrak St. Albans/Montreal

The Burlington Walk Bike Council last Thursday March 24 unanimously voted to send a letter of support on the Champlain Parkway and Pine Street Corridor Re-Design along the Guidelines of the new Pine Street Coalition.  The Pine Street Coalition (PSC) now takes the lead from the Safe Streets Burlington group with the sole purpose of stopping the current destructive design and carrying out a Re-Design that meets the highway standards of today and meets the needs of the South End neighborhood rather than fulfilling the dream of a freeway around Burlington still central in the current Parkway design.  Key to the re-design are separate, safe walk and bike facilities through the corridor and roundabouts (the "intersection safety belt") at new and key intersections.

For more information:

Pine Street Coalition website has maps, uipdates on a Champlain Parkway re-design: https://www.facebook.com/SSBPineStreetNOW/ … Also see http://SafeStreetsBurlington.com 

Meanwhile the saga of connecting Amtrak from St. Albans to Montreal goes on while a bus connection which could be established immediately remains on the shelf thereby costing money and leaving Vermont residents out in the cold from using a rail/bus connection to Montreal.   Here are my comments posted on the 7 Days website this morning to the Amtrak article:

Based on Vermont Transit Montreal-St Albans connection for several years service between the Vermonter train St. Albans-Montreal, VT losses out on $1 million a year plus about 30,000 added passengers through VT--the State could charter a bus service today and Vermonters would also get a chance to take the train/bus to Montreal which they always opted for in the past in most cases rather than the "pure" bus run. Basically this is another case of malign neglect by State government while pandering to folks for decades about a through train. Realize it has taken about 20 years to extend service just from Rutland to Burlington. Tony Redington Blog: TonyRVT.blogspot.com