7 April 2010

County Calls for Rail Line Save

The Ottawa Valley Railway building in North Bay, Ontario.

Pembroke Ontario - Renfrew County's mayors and reeves are calling on the federal and provincial governments to step in and help save the rail line through the Ottawa Valley.
 
Meeting in Pembroke last week, Renfrew County council passed a resolution calling on the two higher levels of government to "commit to a funding program that will permit the economic viability of shortline railways, thereby maintaining valuable railway transportation infrastructure corridors."
 
The resolution was passed just days before the deadline for proposals to take over the Canadian Pacific rail line through the Valley.
 
CP announced in February that it would abandon its line from Smiths Falls to Petawawa if no offers came forward by 5 Apr 2010.
 
The county noted that CP has also indicated that it intends to abandon its line from Petawawa to Mattawa.
 
A shortline railway will be sought to keep operating the line between Temiscaming and Sudbury.
 
Petawawa Mayor Bob Sweet said the county would have to move fast before the full rail line "goes dark."
 
"Once they decide it's surplus to their needs and abandon it, it's gone," he said.
 
Laurentian Hills Mayor Vance Gutzman said he supported the county's resolution "because I believe in the importance of the railway."
 
But he warned that even if senior levels of government step in, it may be too late for the rail line.
 
"The federal and provincial governments can put millions and millions of dollars into it, but CP stopped (using the line) for a reason," he said.
 
"You can't force a private company to ship where they don't want to."
 
Whitewater Mayor Don Rathwell, the county warden, agreed.
 
"I think you've hit the nail on the head," he said. "Freight started backing off 10 years ago."
 
Even with those concerns, however, county councillors voted unanimously to support the resolution.
 
The resolution states that rail service is a "vital transportation link" for "sustainable and vibrant communities throughout rural Ontario," and that the loss of the Valley rail line would represent a "devastating economic impact to an area that has already been severely impacted by the current economic recession and requires improvements to all transportation infrastructure to compete on a level playing field."
 
"The federal and provincial governments have a responsibility to all Canadians and Ontarians, respectively, to ensure that vital transportation infrastructure that was established to serve all Canadians, with substantial investments by Canadian taxpayers, is not lost to the detriment of existing and future citizens of rural Ontario."
 
Copies of the resolution will be sent to all Members of Parliament representing the affected areas, federal Transportation Minister John Baird, Ontario Transportation Minister Kathleen Wynne, and the chairman and chief executive officer of the Canadian Transportation Agency.
 
Terry Myers