Transports en commun - Discussion générale

[ToxiK]

Le dimanche 20 juillet 2008

 

 

Le transport vert a ses limites

 

 

Sébastien Templier

 

La Presse

 

Nantes

 

Pour les responsables du transport nantais, l'avenir, c'est... le bus.

 

 

«Alors que c'est plus facile de faire deux kilomètres de tramway que deux kilomètres de bus, le développement ne peut pas porter malgré tout que sur le tramway. Il va donc falloir relancer le réseau d'autobus.»

 

Alain Boeswillwald rappelle que par sa taille, sa population et sa trame urbaine, Nantes ne peut aller beaucoup plus loin. «Le tramway, c'est très bien quand vous avez à transporter plus de 100 000 passagers par jour.»

 

Mais ce mode de transport représente un coût nettement plus élevé que le bus, rappelle le directeur général de la société de transports nantaise. «Il va falloir sortir de l'idée que la mobilité est peu chère. Avec un réseau performant, on peut faire admettre aux usagers que cela peut être plus cher. La mobilité a un coût, et ce n'est pas un produit que l'on doit brader.»

 

Si Nantes est l'un des meilleurs élèves en France sur le plan des transports écologiques, les efforts déployés sont néanmoins «insuffisants» à l'échelle européenne. Pour progresser, il faudra «faire des ruptures plus fortes dans cinq ou 10 ans, c'est-à-dire interdire, contraindre»", selon M.Boeswillwald. L'automobile est clairement visée. «Mais on ne peut contraindre que si on donne une solution», ajoute-t-il.

 

Une précision partagée par Yannick Curty. Pour le propriétaire de l'emblématique restaurant La Cigale, les profonds changements entrepris en matière de transports ne souffrent quasiment d'aucune contestation. «Cela fait partie d'une évolution nécessaire et indispensable. C'est incontournable.» Du moins sur le fond, car dans la forme, «cela a été un peu brutal», tempère le président de Plein Centre, l'association des commerçants du centre-ville de Nantes. Ses membres ont subi 18 mois de travaux pour les derniers aménagements. Le chiffre d'affaires a baissé de 50% pour les uns, la fermeture était inévitable pour les autres.

 

«La politique de transports publics a été un sujet que les élus se sont approprié de façon unanime. Cela fait partie des grands sujets consensuels», témoigne pour sa part Laurent Dejoie, maire de Vertou, ville de banlieue membre de la Communauté urbaine de Nantes Métropole.

 

L'agglomération nantaise a vu sa population augmenter de 10% au cours des 10 dernières années. Elle croît largement au-delà de ses limites. C'est sans doute là le plus grand défi qu'aura à relever sa politique verte.

 

 

http://www.cyberpresse.ca/article/20080720/CPENVIRONNEMENT/807200364/6108/CPENVIRONNEMENT

[ErickMontreal]

City buses fail inspection

Maintenance backlog; Lack of vehicles could stall MTC's plans to boost ridership

Linda Gyulai, The Gazette

Published: 7 hours ago

Montreal's transit buses failed a series of safety checks by provincial inspectors in summer 2006, records obtained this week from the Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec reveal.

 

And while the Montreal Transit Corp. says it is diligently following the automobile insurance board's recommendations as a result of those inspections, the transit authority is still hobbled by the maintenance backlog it blames in part for the failed inspections, MTC vice-chairperson Marvin Rotrand said yesterday.

 

And the corporation's plan to increase transit service by 17 per cent over the next five years to meet a provincial goal of improved ridership could be derailed temporarily this fall by the repair backlog, he warned.

 

The Montreal Transit Corp., struggling with a maintenance backlog, says it is following recommendations to improve bus safety after inspections by the Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec in 2006.

 

"I'm well aware of these inspections and we have been improving maintenance and following the recommendations," Rotrand said.

 

The results of the SAAQ's 2006 inspections were never made public.

 

An inspector was sent to the MTC's seven garages to check buses between May and July 2006. Forty-one vehicles, chosen at random, had a total of 16 major and 180 minor defects, the SAAQ inspector's report says.

 

The Gazette obtained the report from the SAAQ under Quebec's access-to-information law.

 

The report provides no breakdown of the mechanical defects on the 41 buses, but cites worn brakes and tires as examples.

 

A vehicle with a major defect is immediately banned from the road by the SAAQ until it's repaired. A minor defect must be repaired within 48 hours.

 

The inspector rechecked five of the buses at the MTC's garage on Bellechasse St. a month after his first visit and found no improvement.

 

The five buses had two major and 30 minor defects on June 14, 2006. When the inspector returned on July 12, he found the same buses had three major and 19 minor defects.

 

The inspections took place after the union representing MTC bus mechanics denounced the transit corporation for nearly eliminating preventive maintenance.

 

At a May 2006 news conference, the union said public safety was being compromised.

 

The MTC responded that its standards were more rigorous than those set by the SAAQ.

 

Among the inspector's findings, however, was that MTC bus drivers weren't conducting visual inspections of their buses before departure, as required by law.

 

Moreover, the SAAQ found the level of preventive maintenance in MTC garages "does not allow the vehicles to be maintained in good operating condition" and doesn't meet minimum requirements.

 

Among his recommendations, the inspector called on the MTC to respect the law, update its mechanics' training and set up an audit system for its maintenance procedures.

 

The inspector also urged the SAAQ to order a follow-up inspection to see if the MTC followed the recommendations.

 

The SAAQ has not conducted that follow-up, Claude-Fabien Bilodeau, the SAAQ's co-ordinator of provincial operations, said yesterday.

 

The MTC says it has changed some procedures to meet the recommendations, however.

 

The MTC now systematically pulls buses off the road every 10,000 kilometres to inspect tires and brakes and every 20,000 kilometres to do a mechanical inspection, said Carl Desrosiers, the MTC's operations manager.

[cprail]

Montreal Transit Corp?

[ErickMontreal]

Bus terminus crowding leaves riders on street

 

GIUSEPPE VALIANTE, The Gazette

Published: 10 hours ago

Starting Monday, Aug. 25, commuters from parts of the South Shore will lose the luxury of being picked up or dropped off at an underground bus terminus downtown.

 

Instead, passengers will have to brave the elements and wait at outdoor bus stops along de la Gauchetière St. and René Lévesque Blvd.

 

Some of the buses come infrequently, and having to wait outside will be especially inconvenient during the cold winter months, passengers complained yesterday.

 

The new system affects about 700 passengers a day travelling to and from Châteauguay, Longueuil, Ste. Julie and areas of the Richelieu Valley and the Haut St. Laurent region.

 

"We understand that the changes imply that people's transportation habits will change ... but some people will actually be closer to their work," said Martine Rouette, spokesperson for the Metropolitain Transit Agency.

 

The terminus, located underneath the 1000 de la Gauchetière skyscraper, is running 20 per cent over capacity and becoming a safety hazard, said Sergio Pavone, mayor of Châteauguay and chairperson of the southwest transit system, CITSO.

 

The terminus serves 21,000 people a day, or 10 million passengers a year.

 

"It was on the verge of being shut down," Pavone said.

 

Jean Jules Dansereau, an official with the Association des conseils intermunicipaux de transports, representing 11 regional public transit agencies located around Montreal Island, said the move away from the terminus "doesn't work for us, but we don't have much choice."

 

The association's member agencies currently have about 40 buses each weekday that use the terminus.

 

The agencies have added more buses to satisfy an increase in ridership of 10 to 12 per cent over last year, Dansereau said. He attributed the increase to higher gas prices and the ability of transit agencies to hire more private buses to meet demand because of more provincial and federal money for transit.

 

Pavone, along with officials of the other South Shore municipalities, said they've been in negotiations with the AMT for the past two years to work out a solution. He said the municipalities are still quite frustrated with the decision because they know how their residents are going to react.

 

"They're going to say: 'You guys are trying to encourage public transportation and you're taking us out of a comfortable area and putting us out in the cold. You think I'm going to use the bus?' " Pavone said.

 

Most passengers heading home at the downtown terminus yesterday afternoon weren't too pleased with the changes.

 

Katherine Gowan said she and her husband must arrive at the terminus at least 20 minutes early to get a seat on the crowded bus, which departs infrequently.

 

"It's a 40-minute ride. There's no way I'm standing. ... You could be stuck outside 20 minutes in the cold. It's ridiculous," she said.

 

"They increase the cost of bus passes every year, now they're putting us on the street?" asked Johanne Richard, waiting for the bus to Ste. Julie.

 

Passengers can choose to get on or off at any of the new stops, Rouette said.

[champdemars]

Vivement le SLR, qu'on règle le problème une fois pour toutes. Qui est le plus à blâmer? l'AMT qui gère une situation impossible ou l'inaction des gouvernements (le fédéral qui se fait attendre, de ce que j'en comprends) ??

 

Dans le Courrier du Sud (ou la Presse, je ne sais plus trop) on disait qu'il y aurait une annonce faite en septembre pour les projets d'infrastructures financés par le fédéral au Québec. On sait déjà que le projet du SLR, supposément, a été déposé comme l'un des projets à être financés. Croisons-nous les doigts!

[cprail]

Avec des élections en automne on est mieux de pas trop compter sur des annonces d'importances [qui ne passeront pas avec le prochain budget]...

[marco]

Bon, maintenant le terminus du 1000 dépasse sa capacité, c'est le temps de penser à construire un nouveau terminus d'autobus intérieur, pour accommoder les usagers qui sont à l'extérieur, mais ça prends du financement, pas facile et les délais peuvent êtres longs...

[Malek]

Bon... ce qu'on savait déjà:

 

London congestion charge has failed to solve congestion

Posted Aug 8th 2008 2:28PM by Jeremy Korzeniewski

Filed under: Government/Legal, UK

 

London Congestion Charge: FAIL. According to the most recent reports, traffic in London is exactly as bad today as it was before the C-Charge was ever initiated. London motorists have made their opinion about the system clear in recently voting out ex-Mayor Ken Livingstone, a man who championed the charges and had plans to increase their dollar amount and expand their coverage. The new mayor, Boris "Fast Lane" Johnson, says, "I have always thought that the Congestion Charge is a blunt instrument." Blunt and ineffective, it would seem. While the number of cars within the city limits have gone down, other factors have crept up like an increase in bike and pedestrian traffic that keeps motorists crawling.

 

There is one thing that the London Congestion Charge was good at: making money. Last year alone, the C-Charges racked up some £268 million (a whopping $536 million) in charges. While it may be hard to see that income go away, the fact is that it still takes Londoners an average of 2.3 minutes per kilometer to drive through the city, so expect to see some major modifications to the system in the coming months.

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSL631343220080806

[JCC-Fromthere]

Bon... ce qu'on savait déjà:

 

While the number of cars within the city limits have gone down, other factors have crept up like an increase in bike and pedestrian traffic that keeps motorists crawling.

 

 

Sounds like success to me...

[Malek]

Not really.

 

Congestion charge should reduce congestion