How to Make Progress Using a Snail Pace

Senator Leahy this week received a straight faced report in VT Digger on moving another step forward in customs pre-clearance in Montreal considered necessary for resumption of a rail connection to Montreal.  This in spite of the fact such service existing for more than a century until abandoned in the 1980s.   More important connectivity could be obtained and a profit gained by a simple connection by by a dedicated bus (an "Ambus") between the Amtrak Vermonter serving St. Albans to DC and Montreal's Gare Centrale.  Service was run for a time by bus using a regular Greyhound service with far more difficult scheduling (leaving about 5 a.m. in Montreal) and years before the new freeway extension north of the border cutting about 20 minutes in highway travel times.  It is so ironic that while the Vermont Agency of Transportation started an equivalent "Ambus" connection between Bennington last year to the Amtrak Station in Albany at a heavy subsidy, making a profit with a Montreal Ambus remains on the shelf.  Clear example of bureaucratic hypocrisy?

Here is a comment just made in reference to Stn. Leahy work on customs pre-clearance at Gare Central for New York and Vermont train connections:

"The charade of taking a Montreal/Vermont rail connection seriously masks taking action today to provide a daily rail/Ambus connection to Gare Centrale Montreal drawing 15,000 to 30,000 yearly riders onto the mostly empty train in Vermont, the Vermonter which travels between St. Albans and DC. Forget the $1 million potential profit and thereby equal reduction of State dollars required to support the two Vermont Amtrak trains, Vermonters cannot use this safe and cheaper way to get to the Great North.  So sad the Vermont Agency of Transportation continues this malign neglect of rail connectivity while touting its own great work of completing (almost) its two-decade effort to extend the Ethan Allen Amtrak service from Rutland 55 miles to Burlington.  (Oh, yes, it is only 55 miles because the 13 miles of track from Charlotte to Union Station Burlington has been Amtrak ready since Dr. Dean's Champlain Flyer investments in 1999-2000.)"

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

Kissing Off 15,000 to 20,000 Bys Travelers in Vermont

VERMONT REFUSES TO IMPROVE TRANSPORTATION CONNECTION TO ITS BIGGEST EXPORT CUSTOMER—CANADA

While the Yorkers and Quebecois merrily travel Amtrak daily between Montreal and several stops in New York along the way to New York City, Vermonters and their brethren to the north face expensive forced in second class busing right now with no connections to Vermont’s two Amtrak trains which terminate in New York City and Washington.  When the Montreal bus connection to Amtrak at St. Albans got severed some years ago about 10,000 riders disappeared traveling on a Vermont supported train, adding to the deficit Vermont taxpayers continue to anti up to this day.

The lesson learned at a transportation research conference held this June across the river from Detroit at the center of Canadian auto industry was that stifling trade  caused by inferior transportation facilities or unnecessary red tape and poor cross-border services costs tens of thousands of jobs on each side of the international border.  It just cuts business transactions for both nations.  The  current lack of a Montreal-St. Albans bus connection to our Amtrak trains represents an example of one such “stifle.”  Sure both sides of the border agree to re-establish the rail connection St. Albans-Montreal but meanwhile the positive economic benefits to both—and perhaps 15,000-20,000 potential travelers yearly goes untapped.

The lack of a Montreal-St. Albans-Amtrak connection represents an even more important fact of life—it is part of the larger export market process between our State and our largest customer, Canada, the destination of about 40% of our total exports.

Canada-Vermont trade depends as it does for rest of the U.S. on making cross border travel and rules for goods movement as simple and inexpensive as possible.  Losing the past 10,000 riders a year connecting Montreal to our Vermont Amtrak trains is a clear example of Vermont trading policy gone amok.  Yes Vermont and Quebec governments agree on bringing customs clearance at Montreal’s Gare Centrale but this requires federal action on the part of both nations and there other fish to fry of more importance than duplicating the kind of service provided in Vancouver which more than doubled the Amtrak Portland-Vancouver passenger service numbers.

Restoring the bus link today would surely increase revenues in excess of $1 million over the cost of bus service thereby reducing Vermont tax dollars supporting the two Amtrak trains.  The Amtrak/bus connection to Montreal provides another way for folks to travel in high quality service to and from Burlington’s airport which continues to struggle to maintain its passenger numbers, numbers heavily dependent on a continued infusion of Quebec flyers taking advantage of lower Burlington air fares possible only because of the much higher landing fees charged airlines at Canadian airports.  Easy access by bus/Amtrak from Canada means more potential business for both winter and summer recreation here, and for both Chittenden and Franklin County tourism-oriented businesses.

Most Americans believe China is the U.S.’s biggest trading partner, but exports to China are dwarfed by Canada—always has and always likely will.   For 2013 our exports to Canada were $302 billion, two and a half times that of China, $122 billion.

Wolf concludes his Burlington Free Press column reporting these figures bemoaning the fact that “Vermont firms do not seem to be participating in the global economy as much as are firms elsewhere…” and that this does not “bode well” future Vermont economic growth.

Already this fall after years of construction the major segment of two-lane highway between the Highgate border station and St. Jean, QC will be replaced by four lane divided highway cutting travel time by about 15 minutes between Montreal and the U.S. border with a full corridor of divided highway within a year or so cutting a total of about 20 minutes off the current trip.  This makes the Montreal-St. Albans/Amtrak connection even more economically attractive and effective as an express bus connection not only is shorter in travel time but also assures a more attractive leave and arrival time at Gare Centrale. 

One place State government working just with Quebec could start is through transportation connection improvements to Quebec—and a Montreal-Amtrak at St. Albans service surely can help trade with our northern neighbor as well as make a profit too for our Vermont taxpayers!