- 注册
- 2002-10-07
- 消息
- 402,187
- 荣誉分数
- 76
- 声望点数
- 0
An ambitious plan to connect the National Capital Region by a commuter rail system using old or abandoned rail lines has attracted the attention of foreign investors who have agreed to the first step in a feasibility study.
Moose Consortium envisions building a privately financed rail system with six branch lines stretching to Bristol, Wakefield and Montebello on the Quebec side, and Arnprior, Smiths Falls and Alexandria on the Ontario side. The system would be connected interprovincially by the Prince of Wales Bridge which crosses the Ottawa River at Lemieux Island.
In a letter of intent on July 1, a consortium of investors with ties to China, India, Singapore and elsewhere, agreed to offer “financial resources” and “technical expertise” to move the project forward. But no amount of money will be promised until investors have had a chance to review Moose’s ground work, said Mir Ali, president of Consortia N.A. which partnered with LeMine Investment Group on the letter of intent.
The consortium of foreign investors has given itself 120 days to determine if the project is solid enough to begin a full feasibility study.
“To move forward on a project of this size we need backup information. What’s the population? What’s the condition of the tracks? What are the agreements with the track owners? There’s a whole lot of things that need to be in place,” Ali said.
“We are also skeptical. It’s a very good project, technically. Connecting all the communities is well and good … (but) It’s a long shot. It won’t happen overnight. It has a lot of challenges.”
Moose — the name comes from Mobility Ottawa Outaouais: Systems and Enterprises — is the baby of Joseph Potvin, a 58-year-old economist who views the unused rail lines as an untapped resource. In 2011, he sat down with four friends to brainstorm.
“We looked at a map of existing railways and said here’s what we have. What can we come up with?”
Potvin’s vision is for the system — 400 kilometres of tracks and 50 stations — to be completely privately funded. Commuter rail increases property values, the theory goes, and a portion of that increased value would be used to finance the railway. It’s a modern version of how railways used to be financed, he said, with towns paying the railway company to build a station and provide access. Raising the money privately sidesteps much of the red tape involved in running a railroad in the National Capital Region with its multiple levels of government and jurisdictions.
The Prince of Wales Bridge crosses the Ottawa River at Lemieux Island.
But the outside-the-box business model has had trouble attracting interest. Ian Lee, a professor at Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business, likens it to “snake oil.”
“I’m a numbers guy and I look at how many people there are and I can’t see the numbers adding up,” Lee said.
“It’s not that I’m opposed to mass transit, but it’s very, very expensive. They say it’s going to drive up the property values so much it’s going to pay for itself. No, it’s not.”
Rail companies typically have enormous capital expenses, Lee said, with around 20 per cent of their revenue going to maintain their tracks and rolling stock. “We’re talking billions of dollars. Not millions, billions,” Lee said.
Moose has additional problems with some of its lines: the tracks to Bristol, Que., were removed several years ago while the line north of Wakefield was plagued by the washouts that permanently sidelined Wakefield’s steam train.
Nor has Moose made friends with the City of Ottawa after complaining to the Canadian Transportation Agency when the city ripped out tracks at the Ottawa end of the Prince of Wales Bridge during LRT construction. The city isn’t about to turn the bridge over to a private company.
“The City includes the rail line over the Prince of Wales bridge within its Transportation Master Plan (TMP) as part of the long-term transit network,” said Vivi Chi, the manager of transportation planning, in an email to the Citizen.
“This northerly extension of the Trillium Line to Gatineau will need to be developed at a future date because as per the TMP, the City’s current priority is the first two stages of the Confederation Line and the Trillium Line extension to Riverside South. The City has not received a detailed service plan from Moose to review at this point.”
And yet, it’s the cross river link that Moose’s new investors see as key to the project, said Ali of Consortia N.A.
“It cannot be done unless there is one section that economically makes sense to take it up first,” he said. “That is from Gatineau to Bayview. It’s also the most expensive one because the Prince of Wales bridge requires $50 … $60 … $70 million in capital expenditure.”
Despite the obstacles, Potvin remains undaunted. People in the National Capital Region didn’t give up on railroads, he said. The railroads were stripped away in the 1950s-era redesign by urban planner Jacques Gréber. Potvin sees a future commuter who rides into downtown Ottawa from Arnprior, heads up to Wakefield after work for a show at the Black Sheep Inn, then heads home to Arnprior, all by commuter train.
“Rail did not fall out of use,” Potvin said. “Rail was taken out of use.
“I’m an economist. It bugs me when I see perfectly valuable resources sitting there unused.”
bcrawford@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/getBAC
查看原文...
Moose Consortium envisions building a privately financed rail system with six branch lines stretching to Bristol, Wakefield and Montebello on the Quebec side, and Arnprior, Smiths Falls and Alexandria on the Ontario side. The system would be connected interprovincially by the Prince of Wales Bridge which crosses the Ottawa River at Lemieux Island.
In a letter of intent on July 1, a consortium of investors with ties to China, India, Singapore and elsewhere, agreed to offer “financial resources” and “technical expertise” to move the project forward. But no amount of money will be promised until investors have had a chance to review Moose’s ground work, said Mir Ali, president of Consortia N.A. which partnered with LeMine Investment Group on the letter of intent.
The consortium of foreign investors has given itself 120 days to determine if the project is solid enough to begin a full feasibility study.
“To move forward on a project of this size we need backup information. What’s the population? What’s the condition of the tracks? What are the agreements with the track owners? There’s a whole lot of things that need to be in place,” Ali said.
“We are also skeptical. It’s a very good project, technically. Connecting all the communities is well and good … (but) It’s a long shot. It won’t happen overnight. It has a lot of challenges.”
Moose — the name comes from Mobility Ottawa Outaouais: Systems and Enterprises — is the baby of Joseph Potvin, a 58-year-old economist who views the unused rail lines as an untapped resource. In 2011, he sat down with four friends to brainstorm.
“We looked at a map of existing railways and said here’s what we have. What can we come up with?”
Potvin’s vision is for the system — 400 kilometres of tracks and 50 stations — to be completely privately funded. Commuter rail increases property values, the theory goes, and a portion of that increased value would be used to finance the railway. It’s a modern version of how railways used to be financed, he said, with towns paying the railway company to build a station and provide access. Raising the money privately sidesteps much of the red tape involved in running a railroad in the National Capital Region with its multiple levels of government and jurisdictions.
The Prince of Wales Bridge crosses the Ottawa River at Lemieux Island.
But the outside-the-box business model has had trouble attracting interest. Ian Lee, a professor at Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business, likens it to “snake oil.”
“I’m a numbers guy and I look at how many people there are and I can’t see the numbers adding up,” Lee said.
“It’s not that I’m opposed to mass transit, but it’s very, very expensive. They say it’s going to drive up the property values so much it’s going to pay for itself. No, it’s not.”
Rail companies typically have enormous capital expenses, Lee said, with around 20 per cent of their revenue going to maintain their tracks and rolling stock. “We’re talking billions of dollars. Not millions, billions,” Lee said.
Moose has additional problems with some of its lines: the tracks to Bristol, Que., were removed several years ago while the line north of Wakefield was plagued by the washouts that permanently sidelined Wakefield’s steam train.
Nor has Moose made friends with the City of Ottawa after complaining to the Canadian Transportation Agency when the city ripped out tracks at the Ottawa end of the Prince of Wales Bridge during LRT construction. The city isn’t about to turn the bridge over to a private company.
“The City includes the rail line over the Prince of Wales bridge within its Transportation Master Plan (TMP) as part of the long-term transit network,” said Vivi Chi, the manager of transportation planning, in an email to the Citizen.
“This northerly extension of the Trillium Line to Gatineau will need to be developed at a future date because as per the TMP, the City’s current priority is the first two stages of the Confederation Line and the Trillium Line extension to Riverside South. The City has not received a detailed service plan from Moose to review at this point.”
And yet, it’s the cross river link that Moose’s new investors see as key to the project, said Ali of Consortia N.A.
“It cannot be done unless there is one section that economically makes sense to take it up first,” he said. “That is from Gatineau to Bayview. It’s also the most expensive one because the Prince of Wales bridge requires $50 … $60 … $70 million in capital expenditure.”
Despite the obstacles, Potvin remains undaunted. People in the National Capital Region didn’t give up on railroads, he said. The railroads were stripped away in the 1950s-era redesign by urban planner Jacques Gréber. Potvin sees a future commuter who rides into downtown Ottawa from Arnprior, heads up to Wakefield after work for a show at the Black Sheep Inn, then heads home to Arnprior, all by commuter train.
“Rail did not fall out of use,” Potvin said. “Rail was taken out of use.
“I’m an economist. It bugs me when I see perfectly valuable resources sitting there unused.”
bcrawford@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/getBAC
查看原文...
