Lake Megantic Quebec - The citizens of Lake Megantic suffered the horrific consequences of transporting high-risk oil on the rails on 6 Jul 2013.
 
Nearly ten years since this sad tragedy, known worldwide, the population of Lake Megantic still mourns every year its 47 victims, as well as the loss of its historic downtown area that is still not even 50 percent rebuilt today.
 
Because of this completely avoidable calamity the Coalition of Citizens and Organizations Committed to Rail Safety in Lake Megantic continues to fight relentlessly in an effort to preserve even minimal rail safety standards for its hard-hit community.
 
Our battle is now underway with the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) that acquired the Central Maine & Atlantic rail line in 2020, which runs through our town and the region of Lake Megantic.
 
The Lake Megantic Citizens' Coalition recently learned in January 2022 that this railroad company plans to run huge high-hazard flammable trains of two miles in length at more than 40 mph on their future railroad bypass as early as 2025, despite the fact this new railroad bypass will be built right in the middle of the Lake Megantic Industrial Park.
 
This track will also cross several inhabited areas, impacting 186 private residences located within 500 meters of the new rail infrastructure.
 
The OESF Citizens' Coalition considers our catastrophic scenario similar to that suffered by citizens of the United States in the Lake County and North Cook County regions.
 
For these reasons, the Lake Megantic OESF Citizens Coalition fully supports the Coalition's Rail Safety Campaign, Woods & Wetlands Group, Sierra Club Illinois Chapter in its opposition against the merger of CP with Kansas City Southern (KCS) as well as a potential alternate merger with Canadian National.
 
Dangers associated with transporting toxic and explosive hazardous substances on densely packed railroads in the United States date back to the turn of the century when the Pennsylvania Railroad first started developing and implementing federal controls.
 
Additionally, the Lake Megantic OESF Citizens' Coalition believes a merger of CP with the American company, KCS, will have direct and indirect consequences resulting from increased transportation of dangerous goods by rail through Lake Megantic itself.
 
In this regard, CP's recent annual reports to its shareholders suggest that its new transcontinental rail corridor accessing the deep-water port of Searport will cross all of Maine, Quebec (Lake Megantic), and Ontario on its way to Chicago, and thus become a North American rail transportation hub.
 
For all these reasons, the Lake Megantic Coalition of Citizens and Organizations Committed to Rail Safety is speaking out today in support of the Coalition's Rail Safety Campaign, Woods & Wetlands Group, Sierra Club Illinois Chapter.
 
We stand together in opposition of a merger between CP and KCS, along with any other actions that will increase the number and length of trains carrying hazardous substances through our communities.
 
Rogert Bellefleur.