10 March 2010

Editorial:  Laying it All on the Line

The CP Rail line outside of Renfrew covered with snow.

Petawawa Ontario - We've been down this road, or should we say rail line, before.
 
Today (11 Mar 2010) elected officials gather in Petawawa for a meeting with CPR officials to discuss their upcoming abandonment of the only remaining rail line through Renfrew.
 
In the 31 Mar 1993 edition of The Renfrew Mercury we reported that then-mayor Howie Haramis planned to drive hard bargain in purchasing the rail line that ran, for years, adjacent to the Renfrew fairgrounds.
 
At a CN/CP Ottawa Valley Partnership information night to discuss plans to run one major rail line through town, Haramis was adamant when he spoke of CP's earlier demolition of the much-loved heritage train station.
 
"I'll never forgive CP for tearing down that building. It was a landmark," he said.
 
"It's a shame and it's done and over with. But we're going to get our pound of flesh in negotiations," the mayor said.
 
A pound of flesh, in 2010 terms, has yet to be determined.
 
Today, the rail line abandoned in the 1990s is a recreational trail, known locally as the Millennium Trail.
 
It's hard to say what will become of the latest, and last, stretch of rail line being abandoned in a town that was once a hub of train traffic.
 
Statements at Thursday's meeting are expected to sound hauntingly familiar to local officials. It is, of course, all about money.
 
In 1993 The Mercury reported CN/CP claims that high fuel and maintenance costs, coupled with declining freight volume, forced the carriers to take a hard, serious look at their operations.
 
Back then, CP Rail spokesman Bob Pelland spoke in detail of those pressures.
 
"Do we need two duplicate rail lines? The key thing to remember is that we are forming one steel highway," he said.
 
Today, that one steel highway is poised to become little more than another remnant of days gone by.
 
What will stand in their place when the railway ties and ribbon of steel are torn up?
 
The real debate has clearly just begun.
 
Lucy Hass.