Trudeau Names New Transport Minister

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has named a new transport minister.

Omar Alghabra

Omar Alghabra has replaced Marc Garneau, who will now become minister of foreign affairs.

Garneau had held the transport minister post since 2015.

Alghabra is a member of parliament from Mississauga, Ontario. He also has worked as a consultant and a professor at Ryerson University in Toronto.

He has served as the parliamentary secretary for foreign and trade ministers, and as the Prime Minister’s parliamentary secretary for public service reform.

Born to a Syrian family in Saudi Arabia, he immigrated to Canada in 19 to study engineering.

Among the issues he’ll face as transport minister are an aid package for the airline industry and Air Canada’s planned purchase of tour company Transat A.T.

Canadian PM Boosts VIA High Speed Rail Plan

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has identified boosting VIA Rail Canada’s high-frequency rail project between Quebec City and Toronto to be one of its top transportation priorities.

The project is part of the Transportation 2030 strategic plan.

Trudeau recently sent a “mandate letter” to Transport Minister Marc Garneau in which he directed Garneau to work with the infrastructure and communities minister to create the HFR project in the Toronto-Quebec City Corridor as part of those duties.

The HFR project would expand VIA Rail services to Peterborough, Ontario, and Trois-Rivieres, Quebec City, via a new rail line north of the current service corridor.

Funding Committed to Rebuilding ex-VIA Route

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has said that it will spend $35 million to repair a rail line once used by VIA Rail Canada’s Montreal-Gaspe train.

That service, once named the Chaleur, has been suspended since August 2013 although portions of the route has been suspended in December 2011.

Defects in several bridges that cross the Grande Rivere near Pabos Mills, Quebec, and a trestle between Perce and Gaspe led to the service suspension.

The government of Quebec in 2017 agreed to spend $73 million to rebuild the track as far as Port Daniel-Gascons.

The federal funding will be used to rebuild 10 segments on 79 miles from Port Daniel to Gaspe.

The funding will be taken from the Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund.

VIA said it would resume service over the route once the tracks are rebuilt and passenger operations can be safely undertaken.

The repairs are expected to take more than a year. The line in question was once the National branch of Canadian National.