ViaFast
Encyclopedia
ViaFast was an abandoned passenger rail plan that would have cut Via Rail
's trip times throughout the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. ViaFast did not propose true high-speed service throughout the service area, but a series of smaller upgrades to avoid known bottlenecks and provide improved performance at a fraction of the price of entirely new lines. It aimed to reduce the Toronto
-Montreal
time by about one hour to 3.5 hours, halving the Montreal-Quebec City
time to 2 hours, and reducing Toronto-Windsor
time by an hour to 3.5 hours.
Initially studied in 2002, the plan was announced in the last days of the Jean Chrétien
government. During the transition to Paul Martin
's leadership, members of both the sitting Liberals
and their opposition in the Canadian Alliance
expressed concerns about the plan and it was quietly abandoned. Details of the ViaFast plan became known to the public in 2009 when it was leaked to Canwest news services.
The services currently offered by Via were taken over from their former operators, CN Rail and CP Rail, in 1977. These companies became freight-only services the next year when Via started full operation. Via's initially ran almost all of the original CP and CN routes, but over time they eliminated any duplication in service by moving increasingly to the CN lines. As the freight operators owned the lines, Via trains were forced to run behind freight, reducing their on-time performance. In 1987 Via introduced an on-time policy to address the inevitable delays.
, and many railroad switch
es replaced with versions suitable for high-speed service. None of these changes would be a major benefit to CN. Even with full upgrades to the existing lines, scheduling issues would limit the maximum possible performance along The Corridor, as Via services ran behind freight.
Faced with this daunting infrastructure problem, both CN and Via opted to improve performance using "medium-speed" services using tilting trains. The first of these was CN's introduction of the UAC TurboTrain in the late 1960s, which featured a passive tilt system adapted from the Spanish Talgo
designs. Via inherited the Turbo, but soon after replaced them with the LRC
of similar performance, featuring a locally-designed active tilt system. Both sets were capable of relatively high speeds, around 125 mph (200 km/h), but limitations due to track quality, signalling and scheduling limited speeds to 100 mph or less.
Nevertheless there have been number of studies, including several major ones, that examined the process of adding a true high-speed route. In total there have been 13 studies into various high-speed services. Many of these have been carried out at a provincial level, not federal. The largest study effort started in 1989 at the request of Ontario Premier
David Peterson
and Quebec Premier
Robert Bourassa
. They formed the "Ontario/Québec Rapid Train Task Force" who published their Final Report in 1991, and continued studies that concluded in 1995. These studies supported the construction of entirely new high-speed lines that would provide services up to 400 km/h in the case of maglev, although they suggested this technology was not yet mature and primarily looked at 300 km/h electric sets. However, none of these proposals ever gained the federal funding needed to start construction.
service, and started plans to replace the LRC with a fleet of newly-built P42DC's that started to arrive in late 2001.
At the same time, Via also returned to the concept of "faster service" along The Corridor for their ViaFast proposal. Announced in 2002 by Federal Transport Minister David Collenette
, ViaFast would improve service times primarily through the combination of new signaling and portions of new line that would avoid bottlenecks in the existing network, especially around Kingston
. In particular, they suggested that a new line to Ottawa be laid to bypass downtown Kingston, several new sections between Ottawa and Montreal, and a new line from Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport
to the downtown Montreal area.
A new locomotive was required to take full advantage of the improved performance possible on these stretches of new railbed. ViaFast proposed using the Bombardier JetTrain
, capable of speeds up to 240 km, although several other designs were also suitable. Toronto-Montreal traffic would be routed along the Ottawa line; this added only a dozen kilometers to the trip, an added distance the higher speed along these new lines would more than make up for. Express Toronto-Montreal services would not stop in Ottawa.
Details of the ViaFast plan did not become publicly available until a "strictly confidential" Via Rail internal report was leaked to the Canwest news service in 2009. The report outlined the new routes and trains and the resulting timetables: Toronto to Ottawa in 2 hours and 15 minutes, Ottawa to Montreal in 1 hour and 15 minutes, Montreal-Quebec City in 2 hours, and Windsor-Toronto in 3 hours and 20 minutes. The report also estimated the price of the project at $2.6 billion, over five years, although the report noted this would result in a reduction of Via's costs by $125 million a year once the system was in place.
Other benefits outlined in the report included the creation of 40,000 jobs during construction and 1,700 jobs during operation, a reduction in traffic on Highway 401
/Autoroute 20
equivalent to 1 million cars, and a corresponding reduction of up to $200 million as a result of reduced road maintenance. Canada's annual fuel consumption would be reduced by 262 million litres which would eliminate 824,000 tonnes of greenhouse gasses per year. The original report that these numbers were drawn from has subsequently appeared on the internet.
Signs of trouble for both Renaissance II and the ViaFast proposal appeared immediately. Even before the announcement, liberal member Stan Keyes
complained that Collenette hasn't provided enough information on ViaFast; talking to the CBC
he asked "What is higher-speed rail system? What is Via Fast? We as a committee, members of Parliament, have never seen this proposal. We don't know what it contains, what its demands are." Shortly after the announcement, Joe Comuzzi
, chair of the House of Commons Transportation Committee, stated that Prime Minister Jean Chrétien should not be committing to large funding expenditures as he neared retirement.
Renaissance II was announced during the height of animosity between Jean Chrétien
and Paul Martin
, who frequently clashed in private and often spilled over into the public eye. During the summer of 2002, Martin toured the country drumming up support for a leadership challenge in January 2003, which Chrétien survived. However the battles continued, and that fall Chrétien announced that he would retire in the spring of 2004 unless he had a clear commitment from the party to stay on, which was not forthcoming. On 21 September 2003 Martin won a landslide in the resulting leadership race, but this did not stop the very public infighting that continued through 2004
.
Martin, a fiscal conservative who was named to the World Economic Forum
's "dream cabinet" in 2001, cancelled many capital spending projects, Renaissance II among them.
and their loss in the subsequent 2006 federal election
, Via's fate was passed to Stephen Harper
's Conservative's
. In 2007 Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon
and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty
announced that Via would receive $691.9 million in capital funding over five years, much of this earmarked for capital acquisitions, refurbishing locomotives and passenger cars, and day-to-day operations.
In January 2008, Ontario Premier
Dalton McGuinty
and Quebec Premier
Jean Charest
announced that they would start their own study of high-speed service in The Corridor. Quoting the study from 1995, Charest noted that the estimated $18 billion would cost about $23 billion given the inflation during the intervening period. The two premiers stated they would spend $2 million on a new study to bring the proposal up to date. "We think it's time to conduct our own study that takes into account some of the new realities," McGuinty said.
Part of the federal January 2009 budget included $407 million for rail upgrades, some of which was earmarked for a new track expansion in the Kingston area to allow trains to overtake each other and eliminate bottlenecks. The upgrades would reduce average Toronto-Montreal time by about 30 minutes, allowing the addition of two daily trains. After seeing the budget, McGuinty publicly complained that "I continue to be a big fan of [the plan], as does Jean Charest. The prime minister is not as much of a fan on this score."
VIA Rail
Via Rail Canada is an independent crown corporation offering intercity passenger rail services in Canada. It is headquartered near Montreal Central Station at 3 Place Ville-Marie in Montreal, Quebec....
's trip times throughout the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. ViaFast did not propose true high-speed service throughout the service area, but a series of smaller upgrades to avoid known bottlenecks and provide improved performance at a fraction of the price of entirely new lines. It aimed to reduce the Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
-Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
time by about one hour to 3.5 hours, halving the Montreal-Quebec City
Quebec City
Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...
time to 2 hours, and reducing Toronto-Windsor
Windsor, Ontario
Windsor is the southernmost city in Canada and is located in Southwestern Ontario at the western end of the heavily populated Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. It is within Essex County, Ontario, although administratively separated from the county government. Separated by the Detroit River, Windsor...
time by an hour to 3.5 hours.
Initially studied in 2002, the plan was announced in the last days of the Jean Chrétien
Jean Chrétien
Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien , known commonly as Jean Chrétien is a former Canadian politician who was the 20th Prime Minister of Canada. He served in the position for over ten years, from November 4, 1993 to December 12, 2003....
government. During the transition to Paul Martin
Paul Martin
Paul Edgar Philippe Martin, PC , also known as Paul Martin, Jr. is a Canadian politician who was the 21st Prime Minister of Canada, as well as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada....
's leadership, members of both the sitting Liberals
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
and their opposition in the Canadian Alliance
Canadian Alliance
The Canadian Alliance , formally the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance , was a Canadian conservative political party that existed from 2000 to 2003. The party was the successor to the Reform Party of Canada and inherited its position as the Official Opposition in the House of Commons and held...
expressed concerns about the plan and it was quietly abandoned. Details of the ViaFast plan became known to the public in 2009 when it was leaked to Canwest news services.
The Corridor
"The Corridor" is Via Rail's name for passenger services along the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. This corridor lines pass through 6 of the top 10 largest metropolitan areas in Canada, and passes within a short driving distance of about 60% of Canada's entire population. It is one of the few locations within Canada that has the population density to support inter-city rail service at a profit, representing 85% of Via's overall ridership, and 70% of its profits. In 2005, it carried 3 million of Via Rail's annual 3.9 million passengers.The services currently offered by Via were taken over from their former operators, CN Rail and CP Rail, in 1977. These companies became freight-only services the next year when Via started full operation. Via's initially ran almost all of the original CP and CN routes, but over time they eliminated any duplication in service by moving increasingly to the CN lines. As the freight operators owned the lines, Via trains were forced to run behind freight, reducing their on-time performance. In 1987 Via introduced an on-time policy to address the inevitable delays.
High-speed
As the CN lines that Via uses were designed and used primarily for freight services, offering true high-speed support would be difficult. For services at speeds significantly greater than 150 km/h, fencing would have to be installed along the tracks, level crossings removed or greatly improved, additional signals installed or switched to in-cab signallingCab signalling
Cab signalling is a railway safety system that communicates track status information to the cab, crew compartment or driver's compartment of a locomotive, railcar or multiple unit, where the train driver or engine driver can see the information....
, and many railroad switch
Railroad switch
A railroad switch, turnout or [set of] points is a mechanical installation enabling railway trains to be guided from one track to another at a railway junction....
es replaced with versions suitable for high-speed service. None of these changes would be a major benefit to CN. Even with full upgrades to the existing lines, scheduling issues would limit the maximum possible performance along The Corridor, as Via services ran behind freight.
Faced with this daunting infrastructure problem, both CN and Via opted to improve performance using "medium-speed" services using tilting trains. The first of these was CN's introduction of the UAC TurboTrain in the late 1960s, which featured a passive tilt system adapted from the Spanish Talgo
Talgo
Talgo is a Spanish manufacturer of railway vehicles. It is best known for a design of articulated railway passenger cars in which the wheels are mounted in pairs, but not joined by an axle, and being between rather than underneath the individual coaches...
designs. Via inherited the Turbo, but soon after replaced them with the LRC
LRC (train)
LRC is a bilingual acronym for Light, Rapid, Comfortable or Léger, Rapide, et Confortable, the name of a series of lightweight diesel-powered passenger trains that were used on short- to medium-distance inter-city service in the Canadian Provinces of Ontario and Quebec...
of similar performance, featuring a locally-designed active tilt system. Both sets were capable of relatively high speeds, around 125 mph (200 km/h), but limitations due to track quality, signalling and scheduling limited speeds to 100 mph or less.
Nevertheless there have been number of studies, including several major ones, that examined the process of adding a true high-speed route. In total there have been 13 studies into various high-speed services. Many of these have been carried out at a provincial level, not federal. The largest study effort started in 1989 at the request of Ontario Premier
Premier of Ontario
The Premier of Ontario is the first Minister of the Crown for the Canadian province of Ontario. The Premier is appointed as the province's head of government by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, and presides over the Executive council, or Cabinet. The Executive Council Act The Premier of Ontario...
David Peterson
David Peterson
David Robert Peterson, PC, O.Ont was the 20th Premier of the Province of Ontario, Canada, from June 26, 1985 to October 1, 1990. He was the first Liberal premier of Ontario in 42 years....
and Quebec Premier
Premier of Quebec
The Premier of Quebec is the first minister of the Canadian province of Quebec. The Premier is the province's head of government and his title is Premier and President of the Executive Council....
Robert Bourassa
Robert Bourassa
Jean-Robert Bourassa, was a politician in Quebec, Canada. He served as the 22nd Premier of Quebec in two different mandates, first from May 12, 1970, to November 25, 1976, and then from December 12, 1985, to January 11, 1994, serving a total of just under 15 years as Provincial Premier.-Early...
. They formed the "Ontario/Québec Rapid Train Task Force" who published their Final Report in 1991, and continued studies that concluded in 1995. These studies supported the construction of entirely new high-speed lines that would provide services up to 400 km/h in the case of maglev, although they suggested this technology was not yet mature and primarily looked at 300 km/h electric sets. However, none of these proposals ever gained the federal funding needed to start construction.
ViaFast
As one proposal after another for high-speed service failed to move forward, Via was left on the same routes with a fleet of aging equipment. In December 2000 the company announced the purchase of a fleet of new coaches originally designed for the aborted European NightstarNightstar (train)
The Nightstar was a proposed overnight sleeper service from various parts of Britain to continental Europe, via the Channel Tunnel. To run alongside the Eurostar and north of London day time Regional Eurostar services, the Nightstar was the last part in a round the clock passenger train...
service, and started plans to replace the LRC with a fleet of newly-built P42DC's that started to arrive in late 2001.
At the same time, Via also returned to the concept of "faster service" along The Corridor for their ViaFast proposal. Announced in 2002 by Federal Transport Minister David Collenette
David Collenette
David Michael Collenette, PC was a Canadian politician from 1974 to 2004, and a member of the Liberal Party of Canada. A graduate from York University's Glendon College in 1969, he subsequently received his MA from in 2004...
, ViaFast would improve service times primarily through the combination of new signaling and portions of new line that would avoid bottlenecks in the existing network, especially around Kingston
Kingston, Ontario
Kingston, Ontario is a Canadian city located in Eastern Ontario where the St. Lawrence River flows out of Lake Ontario. Originally a First Nations settlement called "Katarowki," , growing European exploration in the 17th Century made it an important trading post...
. In particular, they suggested that a new line to Ottawa be laid to bypass downtown Kingston, several new sections between Ottawa and Montreal, and a new line from Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport
Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport
Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport or Montréal-Trudeau, formerly known as Montréal-Dorval International Airport, is located on the Island of Montreal, from Montreal's downtown core. The airport terminals are located entirely in Dorval, while the Air Canada headquarters complex...
to the downtown Montreal area.
A new locomotive was required to take full advantage of the improved performance possible on these stretches of new railbed. ViaFast proposed using the Bombardier JetTrain
JetTrain
The JetTrain is a Canadian experimental high-speed passenger train created by Bombardier Transportation in an attempt to make European-style high-speed service more financially appealing to passenger railways in North America. It uses the same LRC-derived tilting carriages as the Acela Express...
, capable of speeds up to 240 km, although several other designs were also suitable. Toronto-Montreal traffic would be routed along the Ottawa line; this added only a dozen kilometers to the trip, an added distance the higher speed along these new lines would more than make up for. Express Toronto-Montreal services would not stop in Ottawa.
Details of the ViaFast plan did not become publicly available until a "strictly confidential" Via Rail internal report was leaked to the Canwest news service in 2009. The report outlined the new routes and trains and the resulting timetables: Toronto to Ottawa in 2 hours and 15 minutes, Ottawa to Montreal in 1 hour and 15 minutes, Montreal-Quebec City in 2 hours, and Windsor-Toronto in 3 hours and 20 minutes. The report also estimated the price of the project at $2.6 billion, over five years, although the report noted this would result in a reduction of Via's costs by $125 million a year once the system was in place.
Other benefits outlined in the report included the creation of 40,000 jobs during construction and 1,700 jobs during operation, a reduction in traffic on Highway 401
Highway 401 (Ontario)
King's Highway 401, also known by its official name as the Macdonald–Cartier Freeway and colloquially as the four-oh-one, is a 400-Series Highway in the Canadian province of Ontario stretching from Windsor to the Quebec border...
/Autoroute 20
Quebec Autoroute 20
Autoroute 20 is a major Quebec Autoroute, following the Saint Lawrence River through one of the more densely-populated parts of Canada, and is part of the Trans-Canada Highway. At , it is the longest Autoroute in Quebec...
equivalent to 1 million cars, and a corresponding reduction of up to $200 million as a result of reduced road maintenance. Canada's annual fuel consumption would be reduced by 262 million litres which would eliminate 824,000 tonnes of greenhouse gasses per year. The original report that these numbers were drawn from has subsequently appeared on the internet.
Introduction and disappearance
Initial funding for ViaFast was provided on 24 October 2003 when Collenette announced the new $700 million "Renaissance II" infrastructure program, stating that Renaissance II "will provide for faster, more frequent and more reliable passenger service across Canada and will preserve the option for higher speed rail, such as the Via Fast proposal, at a later date."Signs of trouble for both Renaissance II and the ViaFast proposal appeared immediately. Even before the announcement, liberal member Stan Keyes
Stan Keyes
Stanley Kazmierczak Keyes, PC is a Canadian diplomat and former politician.Keyes was first elected to the House of Commons in 1988 election as the Liberal Party of Canada Member of Parliament for Hamilton West. He was subsequently reelected in 1993, 1997 and 2000 elections...
complained that Collenette hasn't provided enough information on ViaFast; talking to the CBC
CBC News
CBC News is the department within the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the news gathering and production of news programs on CBC television, radio and online services...
he asked "What is higher-speed rail system? What is Via Fast? We as a committee, members of Parliament, have never seen this proposal. We don't know what it contains, what its demands are." Shortly after the announcement, Joe Comuzzi
Joe Comuzzi
Joseph Robert "Joe" Comuzzi, PC is a former Canadian politician.Comuzzi was born in Fort William, Ontario. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Windsor in 1954. In 1966, Comuzzi received the University of Windsor Alumni Award of Merit, the Alumni Association's most...
, chair of the House of Commons Transportation Committee, stated that Prime Minister Jean Chrétien should not be committing to large funding expenditures as he neared retirement.
Renaissance II was announced during the height of animosity between Jean Chrétien
Jean Chrétien
Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien , known commonly as Jean Chrétien is a former Canadian politician who was the 20th Prime Minister of Canada. He served in the position for over ten years, from November 4, 1993 to December 12, 2003....
and Paul Martin
Paul Martin
Paul Edgar Philippe Martin, PC , also known as Paul Martin, Jr. is a Canadian politician who was the 21st Prime Minister of Canada, as well as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada....
, who frequently clashed in private and often spilled over into the public eye. During the summer of 2002, Martin toured the country drumming up support for a leadership challenge in January 2003, which Chrétien survived. However the battles continued, and that fall Chrétien announced that he would retire in the spring of 2004 unless he had a clear commitment from the party to stay on, which was not forthcoming. On 21 September 2003 Martin won a landslide in the resulting leadership race, but this did not stop the very public infighting that continued through 2004
2004 Liberal Party of Canada infighting
The period between Paul Martin's assumption of the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada on November 14, 2003, and the 2004 federal election being called on May 23, 2004, saw a considerable amount of infighting within the party...
.
Martin, a fiscal conservative who was named to the World Economic Forum
World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum is a Swiss non-profit foundation, based in Cologny, Geneva, best known for its annual meeting in Davos, a mountain resort in Graubünden, in the eastern Alps region of Switzerland....
's "dream cabinet" in 2001, cancelled many capital spending projects, Renaissance II among them.
Aftermath
With the fall of Martin's government after a motion of no confidenceMotion of no confidence
A motion of no confidence is a parliamentary motion whose passing would demonstrate to the head of state that the elected parliament no longer has confidence in the appointed government.-Overview:Typically, when a parliament passes a vote of no...
and their loss in the subsequent 2006 federal election
Canadian federal election, 2006
The 2006 Canadian federal election was held on January 23, 2006, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 39th Parliament of Canada. The Conservative Party of Canada won the greatest number of seats: 40.3% of seats, or 124 out of 308, up from 99 seats in 2004, and 36.3% of votes:...
, Via's fate was passed to Stephen Harper
Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became prime minister when his party formed a minority government after the 2006 federal election...
's Conservative's
Conservative Party of Canada
The Conservative Party of Canada , is a political party in Canada which was formed by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. It is positioned on the right of the Canadian political spectrum...
. In 2007 Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon
Lawrence Cannon
Lawrence Cannon, PC is a Canadian politician from Quebec and Prime Minister Stephen Harper's former Quebec lieutenant. On October 30, 2008 he was sworn in as Minister of Foreign Affairs...
and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty
Jim Flaherty
James Michael "Jim" Flaherty, PC, MP is Canada's Minister of Finance and he has also served as Ontario's Minister of Finance. From 1995 until 2005, he was the Member of Provincial Parliament for Whitby—Ajax, and a member of the Progressive Conservative Party caucus...
announced that Via would receive $691.9 million in capital funding over five years, much of this earmarked for capital acquisitions, refurbishing locomotives and passenger cars, and day-to-day operations.
In January 2008, Ontario Premier
Premier of Ontario
The Premier of Ontario is the first Minister of the Crown for the Canadian province of Ontario. The Premier is appointed as the province's head of government by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, and presides over the Executive council, or Cabinet. The Executive Council Act The Premier of Ontario...
Dalton McGuinty
Dalton McGuinty
Dalton James Patrick McGuinty, Jr., MPP is a Canadian lawyer, politician and, since October 23, 2003, the 24th and current Premier of the Canadian province of Ontario....
and Quebec Premier
Premier of Quebec
The Premier of Quebec is the first minister of the Canadian province of Quebec. The Premier is the province's head of government and his title is Premier and President of the Executive Council....
Jean Charest
Jean Charest
John James "Jean" Charest, PC, MNA is a Canadian politician who has been the 29th Premier of Quebec since 2003. He was leader of the federal Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1993 to 1998 and has been leader of the Quebec Liberal Party since 1998....
announced that they would start their own study of high-speed service in The Corridor. Quoting the study from 1995, Charest noted that the estimated $18 billion would cost about $23 billion given the inflation during the intervening period. The two premiers stated they would spend $2 million on a new study to bring the proposal up to date. "We think it's time to conduct our own study that takes into account some of the new realities," McGuinty said.
Part of the federal January 2009 budget included $407 million for rail upgrades, some of which was earmarked for a new track expansion in the Kingston area to allow trains to overtake each other and eliminate bottlenecks. The upgrades would reduce average Toronto-Montreal time by about 30 minutes, allowing the addition of two daily trains. After seeing the budget, McGuinty publicly complained that "I continue to be a big fan of [the plan], as does Jean Charest. The prime minister is not as much of a fan on this score."
External links
- "High Speed Rail", an episode of The AgendaThe AgendaThe Agenda with Steve Paikin is the flagship current affairs program of TVOntario, Ontario’s public broadcaster. The show practises what anchor and senior editor Steve Paikin calls "long-form" journalism. Each hour-long program tackles no more than two topics, and often only one...
on 4 June 2009, has an extensive series of interviews and debate about services in The Corridor.