Oxford County wants Ontario to consider another option to high-speed rail
Oxford County is expressing concern over what they believe is a “fundamental deficiency” in a high-speed rail study provincial officials are about to launch.
Premier Kathleen Wynne announced last May that the province would begin a $15-million environmental assessment (EA) study for a high-speed rail line that’s proposed to carry trains as fast as 250 kilometres/hour between Toronto and Windsor.
At a total construction cost of $20 billion, Ontario Liberals say high-speed rail would serve more than seven million people, cut travel times in half and create new opportunities for workers, businesses and families.
Stops are proposed in Windsor, Chatham, London, Kitchener-Waterloo, Guelph and Toronto’s Union Station, with a connection to Pearson International Airport.
The province is posed to start work on the terms of reference for the EA study. It will set out how the project could affect the environment, including stations, the location of track locations, energy needs, number of riders, and parking requirements.
But in a recent letter sent to provincial officials signed by Warden David Mayberry, Oxford County outlines its issues over the proposed study.
Referring to it as “a project with significant, potential long-term implications for our county and the province as a whole” the county urged the province to consider “all options and alternatives” including high-performance rail in the study.
High-performance rail is described in an Oxford County document as “a proven middle ground” between traditional Via trains and full-blown high-speed rail.
“It has come to our attention that the (Ministry of Transportation) may be considering narrowing the scope of the environmental assessment process to exclude the consideration of alternatives to (high-speed rail) and focus strictly on corridor variations and mitigating measures,” the letter reads.
“In our view this would be a fundamental mistake which would not only contravene the purpose, intent and requirements of Ontario’s Environmental Assessment Act, but arbitrarily eliminate, without appropriate consideration, a viable and potentially preferable option.”
The letter states that high-performance rail has “already demonstrated its effectiveness and efficiency as a core component of many integrated public transportation systems around the world.”
Oxford County’s top bureaucrat, Peter Crockett, is speaking on the subject at a meeting Thursday that’s been organized by the Oxford County Federation of Agriculture. Peter Jeffrey of the group’s research department will also speaking at the meeting.
It’s scheduled to be held from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Quality Inn Hotels and Suites in Woodstock.