Provincial transportation agency Metrolinx had no business ordering new diesel trains for the Pearson-to-Union Station rail link before completing a feasibility study on electrifying the line, a lawyer for Toronto’s Clean Train Coalition argued before an Ontario Divisional Court panel on Monday.

The CTC, a group of residents living along the tracks, wants the court to order Metrolinx to set aside its $53 million order for diesel multiple units (DMUs) from Sumitomo Corp., to run along the air-rail link (ARL).

“The electrification project was prejudiced by signing the contract,” CTC lawyer Saba Ahmad told the court.

She also argued that Metrolinx was guided by political interests rather than good transportation planning in agreeing to an ARL completion in time for the 2015 PanAm Games, a timeframe that didn’t allow for electrification.

Metrolinx was instructed to approve the diesel contract and was not consulted before the province promised the ARL in the PanAm bid book that outlined the features being promised for Toronto to host the games, Ahmad told the court.

“We are not here asking for electric trains,” said Ahmad. The CTC just wants Metrolinx to study the implications of electrification, she told the panel of three judges.

Spokesman Rick Ciccarelli told the Star the group is asking the court to require Metrolinx to do a comparative benefits analysis for the ARL and put forward a business case with the best technology, then make a decision to go forward with project implementation unfettered by the Pan Am deadline.

But in court, Metrolinx lawyer John Laskin countered that Metrolinx is legislatively bound to take direction from the province.

“Getting the ARL up and running is the fulfillment of a policy objective that has been on the books for decades,” he told the court.

“There can be no doubt, in giving Metrolinx notice to proceed, the minister of the environment was fully aware of concerns from the CTC and others that the ARL should be electrified from the outset,” Laskin said.

Furthermore, he said, there is nothing to preclude Metrolinx from electrifying the rail corridor later.

But Ahmad noted that the cost of electrification goes up when converting from diesel to electric is factored in. She argued that Metrolinx has had “considerable leeway in developing a feasibility study,” since 2009.

“There’s no evidence electrification isn’t off the table,” said Ahmad.

She referred to an affidavit by GO Transit president Gary McNeil, formerly the acting president of the ARL, that suggested the disruption to convert the line to electric rail would be expensive. But he wasn’t able to provide a figure.

Ahmad told the court that 140 DMU trips per day, running every 15 minutes both ways and each carrying about 126 people, will provide the airport service.

DMUs incorporate engines into the coaches, unlike a GO train, where a locomotive pulls the coaches.

The CTC maintains that makes the high cost of electrification even more expensive.

Coalition spokesman Rick Ciccarelli says the group is seeking to get the courts to require Metrolinx to do a comparative benefits analysis for the ARL and put forward a business case with the best technology, then make a decision to go forward with project implementation unfettered by the Pan Am deadline.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Metrolinx has promised that the Kitchener rail line, including the Georgetown South rail corridor, is being expanded so that it can be converted to electric trains, which require overhead catanary wires and hydro substations.

An environmental study of electrification is supposed to be complete in 2014.

The court reserved its decision.

Read more about: