Rail

The railways of Cape Breton have been steadily eroded for several decades, reducing rail service on the island to a mere skeleton of what it once was. Apart from Nova Scotia Power-owned coal shuttle trains running back and forth between Sydney’s coal piers and the Lingan power plant, the last remaining rail link across the island is the Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia (CBNS) Railway’s Sydney Subdivision. Snaking its way from Sydney down along the Bras D’Or Lakes and joining the mainland of Nova Scotia via the Canso Causeway, this former CN line historically saw heavy freight trains and regular passenger services. Today, it is hardly used at all and may soon be lost for good.

Traffic on the line deteriorated through the 1990s with the closing of Cape Breton’s coal mines, along with declining rail traffic from Newfoundland and cancellation of VIA Rail passenger services. Changing hands from CN, shortline operators RailTex and RailAmerica both failed to generate greater traffic, and deferred maintenance allowed the line to fall into disrepair.

By 2014, new shortline owner Genesee and Wyoming (GWI) was running one train a week on the line. Through a combination of rate hikes, a rejection of a long-standing provincial subsidy, and an application to discontinue services, GWI aims to end any service on the line as soon as possible.

Transport Action Atlantic believes that this line provides a critical piece of transportation infrastructure for Cape Breton island, which needs to be maintained in some fashion to ensure that safe, reliable and sustainable transportation options will be a possibility in Cape Breton’s future. We will be actively involved in the fight to save this rail line, participating in the Nova Scotia UARB hearings and various town hall meetings, and ensuring that our voice is present in the conversation on this issue. Keep an eye on our website for updates on the situation, further information about what we’re doing, and opportunities for you to get involved.

Finally, some good news!

On May 12, 2014, Transport Minister Lisa Raitt made a surprising announcement that departed from previous statements about the intentions of the federal government: the government will, through VIA Rail, provide the remaining $10.4million required to repair the CN Newcastle Subdivision between Miramichi and Bathurst, NB. This ensures that The Ocean (VIA Rail Trains 14 and 15) will be able to continue running on its current route, providing passenger rail service to communities along the line from Montreal to Halifax.

This marks the successful culmination of a long and hard-fought campaign by advocacy groups (including TAA), citizens, and politicians at all levels of government. Thanks to the hardworking campaigners, volunteers, and concerned individuals who petitioned the federal government to take action, we’re able to celebrate a small victory in the fight to maintain and improve our passenger rail system in Atlantic Canada.

TAA would like to thank everyone who participated in our campaigns over the last number of months. We couldn’t have done this without the collective effort of all of you. It’s often easy to feel like we spend a lot of time working towards things that never really come to fruition, so every success like this is worth taking a few minutes to celebrate.

Of course the fight doesn’t end here. The Ocean is still under threat, as the 3 departures per week schedule has created an inefficient and unsustainable model that isn’t working well, either for passengers or for VIA’s bottom line. We need to continue the push to bring the train back to at least 6/week service, and ideally to daily service. It doesn’t have to stop there either: we will continue to push for VIA and the federal and provincial governments to examine other options for passenger rail services in Atlantic Canada. We will also continue the fight to restore service to Gaspé.

So let’s stay positive, and allow this success to encourage us in our continued efforts to restore safe, efficient, responsible, and effective passenger rail services to Atlantic Canada.

[For more information: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/via-rail-agrees-to-102-million-upgrade-in-new-brunswick/article18630782/]