January 12, 2011
Future of rail line
in local hands: MP
by Terry Myers
Municipalities in Renfrew County and beyond will have to act, and act
soon, if they want to save the Ottawa Valley rail line, says MP Cheryl
Gallant.
“The message to the municipal representatives... is the same message I
gave when this issue first arose over a year ago,” Gallant said last
week.
“Municipalities need a business plan. Coming to Ottawa with an
open-ended request for millions of taxpayers dollars cannot be
supported.”
The future of the rail line has been up in the air since the end of
2009, when the Ottawa Valley Railway (OVR), a division of short-line
hauler Rail America, announced that it was abandoning its operations on
that section of track.
Following OVR's decision, CP invited bids on the line from the private
sector, but that process fell through when no deal was reached by the
deadline last fall.
Under the Canada Transportation Act, the next stops in the line are the
federal and provincial governments, but both have also declined the
offer, leaving the fate of the rail line in the hands of municipalities
in Renfrew and Lanark Counties.
Gallant pointed to the case of the Ottawa Central Railway, the former
CN rail line that runs from Ottawa, through Pontiac County in Quebec,
and then back across the river through Beachburg to Pembroke.
According to reports, a non-profit group called Transport
Pontiac-Renfrew (TPR) is negotiating a deal for line. Its business plan
calls for a mix of freight, commuter trains and a tourist excursion on
the line.
“With an interested group formed and prepared to make the effort, the
federal government provided funding to complete a business plan. As a
result, the OCR has a real chance for success,” Gallant said.
Gallant said the same thing could happen on the OVR, the Canadian
Pacific line from Smith Falls to Mattawa.
“I am hopeful that much of the work that went into the TPR business
case can be applied to the OVR,” Gallant said.
However, coming up with a business plan is still the “first, necessary
step,” she said last week.
“Our Conservative government is on record of providing substantial
financial support to ailing shortline railroads in Ontario.
“The people of Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke are fortunate to have an MP
in government to work on their behalf,” Gallant said.
What role the county or local municipalities are willing to play in the
future of the rail line is still up in the air.
Whitewater Mayor Don Rathwell, the former county warden, wrote to
federal Minister of State for Transport Rob Merrifield last fall to
seek more time for a solution.
Rathwell said the loss of the rail line would hurt the county.
“It will immediately result in cost hardships for our wood processing
industries and it will unquestionably discourage potential investors,
who require bulk transport options, from locating in Renfrew County.”
But Rathwell said it is “directly in the hands of the federal and
provincial governments to preserve this vital corridor of commerce for
today and future generations.”
“Municipal levels of government, even when allied as we are with
communities the full length of the OVR, do not have the resources or
the mandate to operate a railway,” he said.
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