Sudbury Ontario - The sight of burning railway cars just outside Gogama should be enough to make Sudburians shudder not only for their Northern neighbours, but for themselves, as well.
 
Last Saturday, a CN train carrying crude oil from Alberta derailed.
 
According to Google Earth, the wreck occurred less than 3 kilometres from the western edge of the village and just 3.6 kilometres from the village centre.
 
A total of 38 tank cars left the tracks and at least five plunged into the Makami River.
 
Several cars broke open, spilling crude into the Makami.
 
Several caught fire.
 
They burned until 18:00 Monday, before crews could put the fires out.
 
France Gelinas, whose sprawling Nickel Belt riding takes in Gogama, visited the area.
 
"What I've heard the most is, what if," Gelinas told QMI Agency on the weekend.
 
"What if this had been another two kilometres and it happened in the middle of the village," she said.
 
If the fire had occurred there, "Gogama would be gone," the NDP MPP said.
 
What if, indeed.
 
Sudbury is a railway hub, with tracks snaking throughout much the city, including downtown and around Ramsey Lake, a key source of drinking water.
 
In a letter to the Sudbury Star, Tony Sottile noted that people in his neighbourhood are growing concerned with what they say is more train traffic hauling longer loads.
 
The two accidents near Gogama, plus another one in Hornpayne, all in the past month, have people thinking, he wrote.
 
Canadians, of course, remember what happened in July 2013, when an oil train derailed in Lake Megantic, killing 47 people in a horrific fireball.
 
"Are we waiting for another catastrophe as happened in Quebec last year and, of course, Gogama, over the past month?" Sottile wondered.
 
Following the Lake Megantic tragedy, the federal government moved to force rail companies to use better, safer, cars.
 
And this week, Ottawa proposed even tougher new oil tank car standards and said even improved tank cars coming into service now would have to be off the rails by 2025 at the latest.
 
That's a good step.
 
So are discussions to slow the trains down.
 
Another step, but an expensive one at that, would be to move CP's tracks altogether from the heart of Sudbury.
 
It's been a long and cherished goal of groups like Imagine Sudbury.
 
Its members believe moving the tracks, perhaps somewhere between Garson and Azilda, would help clean up the downtown, creating exciting new economic and development opportunities.
 
The obstacle, of course, is money.
 
A 2011 study for Imagine Sudbury put the cost at $235 million to $468 million.
 
The railway may be willing to have its tracks move, but won't be willing to pay for it.
 
Perhaps, but that doesn't stop city council from taking a serious look at the idea.
 
It appears that moving the tracks from the downtown is no longer just an economic imperative, but increasingly, a safety imperative.

Don MacDonald.