| Clean Train Coalition Update
Successes Along the Corridor!
The City's Public Forum on March 22 was a resounding success! It was standing room only and garnered lots of media coverage, a sample
of which we have posted on the cleantrain.ca website. Thanks to all of you who came out to show your support and ask some excellent questions of the panelists, and thanks to Councillors Fletcher and Filion for hosting such an engaging discussion.
Junction residents saw a victory last week when Metrolinx
decided to drop their appeal of the Canadian Transport Agency ruling
that GO must use quieter pile-driving technology in the West Diamond
in order to reduce noise impacts in the community. Congratulations!
See the Toronto Star article.
Ongoing Coalition Efforts
The Metrolinx electrification study is under way but we are
worried that the airport rail service is not yet guaranteed to be
included in the study, even though the air-rail link trains would make
up 70% of the volume on the Georgetown South line! The Clean Train
Coalition is adamant that the air-rail link be included and we will
need public pressure to help support this cause.
What you can do: Send an email to Rob Prichard to ask him to make sure that this critical piece of the corridor expansion plan is not left out of the study. (Feel free to send a copy
of your email to us at info@cleantrain.ca.)
The Toronto municipal election is coming up this fall and the Clean Train Coalition is meeting with the mayoral candidates to let
them know about this issue and to ask them if they will support us. What you can do: Contact the mayoral candidates and your local
candidates for councillor and let them know how you feel about the issue.
Upcoming Related Events
The Clean Train Student Coalition is having an informational meeting of their own tomorrow, Wednesday, April 14, from 7-9 pm at
Innis Town Hall on the University of Toronto Campus. There will be two panels: one on property values, and the other on civic engagement,
transparency, and community planning (including our own Mike Sullivan, who will be one of the panelists). For more information and to
register, click here.
Parkdale-High Park NDP is hosting a public forum about transportation and the environment next Tuesday, April 20, at
Bishop Marrocco School at Dundas and Bloor. Doors open at 6:30 pm. Click here for more details. Mike Sullivan will be one of the panelists at this event as well.
The Clean Train Coalition will be hosting a Jane's Walk on
Saturday, May 1, from 2-3:30 pm, starting at SoraurenPark and
heading up the West Toronto Railpath. We'll be walking along part of
the corridor and exploring the impacts Metrolinx's plan will have on
air quality, the environment and quality of life along the corridor.
If you cannot make it on Saturday, there'll be a Clean Train component
of Doug Bennet's Sorauren-Wabash walk the following day, Sunday, May
2, starting at 1 pm in Sorauren Park. To sign up for either or both
walks, click here.
Call for Help
As you probably know, the Clean Train Coalition is made up entirely
of volunteers who contribute our spare time to the fight for
electrifying the airport-rail link and Georgetown South corridor rail
expansion. This means we are always looking for people to help us out
with everything that needs to be done. We could use help in all areas,
including: economics, train technology, fundraising, outreach,
flyering, and media, just to name a few.
What you can do: If you would like to take a more active role in the
coalition, please send us an email at info@cleantrain.ca, indicating your area(s) of interest.
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