14 April 2010

Tearing Up Rail Lines Denies Hope for Future

North Bay Ontario - There is a big difference between an important letter mislaid or lost (with apologies to Canada Post) and a letter that is deliberately destroyed.
 
There is always hope that the lost letter will turn up somewhere, at some time. The destroyed letter is gone for ever unless someone made a copy.
 
Railways are not letters and they cannot be cheaply copied. Once they have gone no one is likely to rebuild them. This is why so many municipal councils, including North Bay's, have expressed concern or alarm in response to Canadian Pacific's decision to abandon three Ontario short-haul lines if it cannot find some other company to run them.
 
These include CP's line from Smiths Falls to Petawawa, the line from Petawawa to Mattawa, and it wants someone to take over the line from Temiscaming to Sudbury.
 
The deadline for the Ottawa Valley line was 5 Apr 2010 so a lot of people are very worried.
 
It is very easy to denounce Canadian Pacific as a hard-hearted corporation leaving many small communities in the lurch. In fact it must comply with a host of provincial and federal regulations before it can do much of anything. But CP is not Joe's barber shop. If Joe closes down a younger barber may replace him. Very likely Joe has closed because too many customers prefer hair stylists.
 
CP is a gigantic corporation with its roots buried in Canadian history. It is a corporation and its directors have decided to abandon these lines because they believe it is in their shareholders interests.
 
Many want provincial or federal governments to intervene. It is unlikely either wants to put up money to subsidize what appear to be money-losing railway lines.
 
Yet the question remains when a huge corporation makes decisions to profit its shareholders must the public interest be ignored? Abandoning these lines will affect every community they serve. What is worse is that the damage is not only immediate but extends into the future.
 
No industry that needs rail service will ever consider locating in these communities.
 
If CP wants to stop service on these lines because they lose money it is understandable. At the same time the public has become very cynical about business decisions. Taxpayers are paying too much to bail out corporations whose executives made thoroughly bad decisions.
 
Stopping service serves the shareholders immediate interests. Tearing up the rail lines is a denial of the people's hopes for the future.
 
Governments are not being unreasonable if they demand that CP leaves its lines untouched for at least a decade. At the same time the municipalities who are protesting must agree not to levy taxes upon dormant railroad property that may be a future asset.
 
CP was built by visionaries who dreamed of a glorious future. The company must not damage the far more modest aspirations of small-town folk struggling to create a better future for their community.
 
John R. Hunt.