Tuesday 18 October 2011

Business Interests and Transit Gurus Agree: Quebec Needs to Concentrate on Public Transit, Not New Autoroutes

The federation of Quebec chambers of commerce (FCCQ) and Transit, a new alliance of several dozen groups and experts advocating public transit, came out strongly on Monday in favour of concentrating on public transit in Quebec and infrastructure repairs for a while rather than building new autoroutes.

In a letter addressed to the Quebec Minister of Transport, they point out that over the next five years the ministry plans on investing $16.9 billion in road construction, of which $5.4 billion will go for new road projects or the extension of existing ones. In comparison, only $2.9 billion are earmarked for public transit projects.

The latter figure falls far short of the $10.3 billion need between now and 2020 for maintaining the public transit infrastructe, to say nothing of expanding it, the two groups said in press release.

What good sense! It would be nice to think that the common front they're presenting will have some impact

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