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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Friday, May 16, 2014 | 10 Officials of all stripes agree -- gridlock must go by David Lea Oakville Beaver Staff Transportation is a hot topic these days with this week's Translog 2014 Transportation Conference in Burlington examining the ins and outs of moving around in Ontario and western GTA leaders discussing multimodal transportation planning at a Brampton conference last week. The topic did not escape the agenda locally either, as the Oakville Chapter of the Professional Engineers of Ontario and the Oakville Chamber of Commerce hosted a May 2 transportation symposium, Moving Today for Tomorrow. It attracted an audience of more than 300 and featured numerous speakers, including Ontario Minister of Transportation and In- frastructure Glen Murray, Metrolinx President and CEO Bruce McCuaig and Canada's Minister of Transport and Halton MP Lisa Raitt. Murray defended the Ontario government's 25-year Big Move plan to spend $50 billion on transportation infrastructure. He said introduction of 30-minute service on the Lakeshore GO Transit lines last June boosted ridership 30 per cent. Plans to electrify the GO system over the next decade, which would see 15-minute service, would have major implications for Oakville, said Murray. "What regional express rail is going to do, more than just being a transportation system, it is the integrative platform for economic renewal. You can see it in London, England. Since 1952 Glen Murray You can see it in Vancouver. It will give to central Oakville the same properties of connectivity and frequency that raise the value of land, build the tax base and attract the kinds of capital and office investments that were uniquely the properties of Union Station," said Murray. "There will be very little that will transform Downtown Oakville like regional express rail every 15 minutes. It simply Bruce McCuaig will mean more people will be able to open businesses because the connectivity to a skilled workforce is critical." He said it would not only take 20,000 vehicles off Hwy. 401 and the QEW , but would make Oakville an urban mobility hub and `not a spoke in Toronto's wheel.' Murray said widening highways is not the solution to gridlock -- comparing it to loosen- Lisa Raitt ing your belt to lose weight. He also noted cities such as San Francisco, Berlin and Melbourne are adopting regional express rail and said Ontario cities cannot stand still if they want to remain competitive. McCuaig said there is no better investment in the economy or in quality of life than building a regional transportation system. He noted for every dollar Carpet Cleaning Specialists On The Spot! 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OAKVILLE, ON QEW Speers Wallace If paying by cheque, please detach and forward with your payment to: Kerr Street Ministries, 485 Kerr Street, Oakville ON L6K 3C6. A receipt for income tax purposes will be sent to you. For more information on how you can help this growing ministry need contact us today at 905-845-7485. Charitable Reg. No. 897106845RR0001 spent in transportation infrastructure, $1.14 is generated back through economic activity. McCuaig admitted there is no single solution, but investment in subways, light rail transit and roads is necessary to combat gridlock in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA). Traffic, he said, will worsen if nothing is done as the GTHA's current population of six million grows by 100,000 annually. "We have to have a balanced transportation solution as we move forward with improving the quality of our experience in this region," he said. "The time is now, not just to catch up on the investment that was not made over the 1980s, 1990s and the early parts of the 2000s, but to keep up with the kind of demand we are going to continue to see in this region." McCuaig said through the Big Move, Metrolinx hopes to encourage more people to take public transit by making it convenient, available and reliable. This requires more than tripling the GTHA's 500 km of rapid transit to 1,700 km in order to put a transit stop within two kilometres of more than 80 per cent of residents. He said $16 billion of the Big Move's $50 billion is already committed with some 200 projects under construction. One slated for completion next spring, will see an express rail service between Toronto's Union Station and Pearson International Airport. McCuaig said the Union Pearson Express would offer 25-minute service between the two busiest transportation hubs in the country. Good news, as McCuaig said many GTHA business owners listed gridlock as a significant barrier to competitiveness, growth and attractiveness to qualified employees. Raitt stressed the importance of safety in rail transit. Noting Canada has one of the largest rail networks in the world, with approximately 48,000 km of track, the minister said it is essential for trains, train operators and properties around railways to be safe. "It is at the rail crossings where almost half of all railway-related deaths and injuries take place so it is a spot of intensity that has to be focused on and the good news is that's a place we can actually make a difference," said Raitt. "Studies reveal accident rates decrease by 70 per cent when you make improvements to grade crossings. It's as simple as that." Raitt said this year, the federal government is contributing about $9 million to upgrade 600 grade crossings across Canada. see Raitt on p.15