Mr. Speaker, I rise in the House today to speak in support of one of our great traditional enterprises, our national railway system.
When we are considering the role of rail in any infrastructure decisions, a real possibility in my riding of Mission-Coquitlam, we must be aware of these facts:
A core rail network compliments the highway system as rail serves as the prime mover of bulk resources and exports, provides a commercial alternative to trucking, enables marine and road intermodal links, provides infrastructure that can continue to be user pay, reduces current and future liabilities for public spending on transport infrastructure, and creates an opportunity for partnership with governments to use available rail corridors for intercity passengers and commuter rail transit.
For the environment rail means less congestion, less air pollution, fewer accidents, less cost of injury, less noise and more effective land use.