Thursday, November 1, 2007

Liberal Jim Bradley - again - waffles on Niagara GO train

Here’s a melifluous Jim Bradley from the Ontario Legislature Assembly on Dec.23 1999:

“Mr James J. Bradley (St Catharines): Residents of the constituency of St Catharines have some advice for the Minister of Transportation for the new year.
They are very dissatisfied with the sweetheart deal Mike Harris signed with a big out-of-province company to acquire, own and operate Highway 407. The government has given up ownership of a publicly owned highway, allowed the company to charge exorbitant tolls to motorists and has become the enforcer for payment of tolls by holding up the renewal of licences.
They are angry with the length of time required to arrange an appointment for a driver's test and the excessive charges for each test. They are perturbed that despite the graduated licence protocol and staging, so many people are failing their driver's tests.
Motorists are dismayed by the congested roads and the vastly increased number of trucks on our highways. They are worried about their safety when government cutbacks mean less frequent plowing and sanding of highways, and when transport trucks, sometimes ill-equipped and with aggressive drivers, travel at high speeds, even in bad weather and dangerous road conditions.
They would love to see GO Transit service extended to St Catharines and even to Niagara Falls, the MTO to hire adequate staff to process forms, and more funds devoted to public transit.
The people of the constituency of St Catharines are very reasonable, and if the minister were to comply with all these requests in the new year, I can assure you they would applaud him, as I would.”

Here’s what the St. Catharines Standard reported (Oct.31, 2007) about Jim Bradley, newly appointed as Ontario's transportation minister: "During the election campaign, Bradley said GO Transit would be coming to Niagara soon.
On Tuesday, he said until he meets with ministry staff, he can't say exactly when that will be.
He also said that when GO comes, it will be in the form of GO buses taking Niagara residents to train stations in the GTA.
"If then, over the years, the numbers warrant it, you'd see the addition of GO trains," Bradley said.”

So there you are, the master champion fence-sitter Jim Bradley really has no answers, in effect, what he’s saying now wasn’t what he was saying during the campaign. Then, he didn’t say he didn’t know when GO will arrive. He didn’t say then that GO will be in the form of a bus service - we have privately run buses already! We need the GO train for commuters and for tourists now, not “if” over some unspecified years. What are these specific "numbers" that Bradley alludes to? Aren't there enough tourists who would go to the Falls? Aren't there enough commuters who would travel to Hamilton/Toronto for work, and vice-versa? It's the same, decades old B.S. from Kyoto-hypocrite Jim Bradley.

No comments: