20 October 2007
Off the Tracks
Don Roberts stands in front of the old train station on York
Street.
Frederiction New Brunswick - Don Roberts still remembers
the sound of the marching band leading soldiers to waiting trains at Union Station.
The Second World War was raging overseas. Roberts lived at 312 York St., and the bustle outside was his cue to do his part to see the
troops off.
Though only 11 years old, he recognized the gravity of the situation. Men in uniform hugged crying mothers and offered one last kiss to
their sweethearts before boarding the train for the journey to the far corners of the world. Roberts' own mother had already told him
some wouldn't return.
Sitting on a ledge, he'd watch and listen as a bell rang in tempo, signalling the train's departure.
"We were practically crying too, because everyone else was," said Roberts, 77.
So vivid are the memories the train station evokes that he said he can still hear the clanging bell and even smell the coal dust of the
old steam locomotives that hauled cars on the Canadian Pacific Railway's Fredericton branch line.
But Roberts said he can hardly bear to look at the old station anymore. The red brick building, built in 1923, is in bad shape and the
tattered roof in need of repairs.
"I don't want to look at it, but I do and I just feel heartbroken," he said.
In the days when there was no airport and few cars, the station held a central role in the community.
If people were the blood of Fredericton, then Union Station - pulsing them in and out - was its heart.
Roberts said he worries that without urgent repairs, what little life the building still has is about to patter out.
"I just came by there Sunday night and I thought, Oh God, it won't last this winter with the snow coming down on that. With the
weight that is on the roof, it'll cave in, as sure as the devil. It just won't last."
J.D. Irving Ltd., which owns the former train station and the property it's on, says it's looking at what it can do to preserve the
building. The company had engineers on site earlier this week looking at what the company needs to do to winterize the site.
Irving estimates it would cost up to $2 million to restore the building to the historical integrity expected by Heritage Canada.
An Irving representative has said the best way for the company to do that is to find a viable commercial development to help underwrite
the costs.
But the station's deterioration has become a source of public derision for a community that has so much emotionally invested in the
historic building.
"The Irvings are millionaires. Why don't they fix it?" Roberts said, echoing the sentiments of many in the community.
More than a few residents have wondered whether anything will be done before it's too late.
Mary Keith, vice-president of communications for J.D. Irving, said the company has been making attempts to get a project
in place. She said she recognizes that isn't always clear to people who hold the Fredericton station so near and dear to them.
"There's a perceived lack of effort, I guess. From our perspective, we've worked consistently behind the scenes," Keith said.
The company can't talk about negotiations with prospective tenants, Keith said. But she confirmed J.D. Irving is in ongoing talks with
someone and says there were promising discussions with at least three other parties in the last seven years.
But there are some who think that at the pace things are going, there may soon be nothing historic worth saving.
It's little wonder people have those concerns when the building has played such a central role in the lives of so many people, says
local historian Ted Jones.
"That station was the centre of Fredericton, getting in and out. I think it's the memories, the sentimental value that it
has."
The station was a hub of activity as troops returned from overseas after the war.
But memories of wartime aren't the only ones, and trains arriving at Union Station brought people into a city that thrived on its
institutions.
Students from across the province often got their first impression of Fredericton as they detrained at Union Station,
wide-eyed and eager to begin their studies at the University of New Brunswick, the Provincial Normal School, or business
college.
And newlyweds held one another close as they waited for the train that would take them to their honeymoon destinations.
The station was so essential to life in the city that in the 1950s and 1960s, it wasn't uncommon for people to take an evening stroll
to the 7:15 train for no other reason than to catch a glimpse of who was leaving for a trip and who would arrive to the waiting lineup
of taxis.
"It was never deserted," said Roberts, who has warm memories of riding the rails as a boy to get to Fredericton Junction and
then switching there to head off to visit his father in Boston.
Once he began working as a buyer for McElman's and later the UNB bookstore, the train became an essential link for him to places such
as Montreal and New England.
The station was a hive of activity every time someone important came to town.
Jones said he can still remember the day in 1951 when a young princess arrived in Fredericton.
He was among the boys dressed in their scout uniforms eager to catch a glimpse of the woman who would become Queen Elizabeth II.
His scout troop made the trip on a special train from McAdam that day.
"We all came into that station. The city was crowded," Jones said.
"We got on a special train, walked down to the legislature and saw the Queen and Prince Philip. Everything was so organized. The
trains came in one after another."
Almost everyone who travelled did it by train in those days.
Prime ministers, governors general, and stars of yesteryear such as the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens accessed
Fredericton via the train line.
And whether it was greeting the big names or seeing off those dearest to their hearts, every one of those moments belongs to someone's
memory.
Many believe the station never should have been turned over to private interests once the Canadian Pacific Railway was done with it.
J.D. Irving took legal possession of the property in 1995. But the acquisition was part of a deal the company actually struck in the
1940s.
While some have clamoured for the city to fix it up and stick the owners with the bill, Mayor Brad Woodside said it can't.
He has said the city has no authority to order its cleanup because the property remains under the federal Railway Act.
The city's concerns about the deteriorating roof did convince J.D. Irving to fence off the storied building last year.
In 1991, the building was designated as a heritage site by Parks Canada. Irving said the building was already in serious disrepair when
it took possession four years later.
In February 2006, the Heritage Canada Foundation added the station to a list of the country's 10 most-endangered historic
sites.
Members of Fredericton Friends of the Railway have called a meeting for Tuesday night to press their concerns.
Acting president Tim Scammell said he wants to find a way to restore the building to something better than its current state.
The Friends group invited local politicians and representatives of J.D. Irving to the meeting. Irving has said it didn't receive enough
notice of the meeting.
Mayor Brad Woodside has said he will meet with the group.
Woodside says the city continues to work behind the scenes to find an innovative solution to the issue.
But it's not coming soon enough for a community that has so much personal history invested in the downtown landmark.
"When you wanted to travel out of Fredericton in the pre-war and post-war years, you just went down to
the station and got on the train," Jones said.
"You thought nothing of it. You thought it was always going to be there.
"And once it's gone, that's it."
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