23 May 2009
DRTP to Launch Environmental Assessment for Rail Tunnel
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The CP Rail tunnel, which connects Windsor with Detroit, is
just west of Wellington Avenue.
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Windsor Ontario - The Detroit River Tunnel Partnership
will launch its environmental assessment for a new Windsor-Detroit double-stack rail tunnel in the next few
months, said a spokeswoman for the group.
"We are working diligently on both the U.S. and Canadian sides to get ourselves prepared to enter that process," said Marge
Byington, the Michigan-based director for the project.
DRTP is a partnership between CP Rail and Borealis, an investment arm of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System pension
fund.
CP Rail has touted the need for a new rail tunnel to accommodate tall double-stacked rail cars that can't pass through
the existing tunnel.
Byington guessed it would take about 12 to 18 months for DRTP to complete an environmental assessment.
"I think this entire region is just ripe for a multimodal international logistics centre," she said. "There is pretty
much nowhere else on the U.S.-Canada border with the potential with the (Windsor) airport, Metro Airport, and rail
facilities."
But Federal Infrastructure and Transportation Minister John Baird indicated during a recent visit to Windsor how the government's
focus in this region is first on completion of the new Detroit River bridge, plazas, and border feeder roads, not rail improvements.
"We are not aware of any recent request to convert the rail tunnel to a double-stacked tube," said Mark Butler,
spokesman for Transport Canada.
It is expected a new rail tunnel would cost in the range of US$400 million.
Dave Battagello.
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