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Passenger rail supporters put pressure on MP, Ottawa

These are desperate times for a coalition lobbying to reinstate passenger rail service in northeastern Ontario.
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The City of Sault Ste. Marie should know in the new year if it can move forward with a plan to salvage the Algoma Central Rail passenger line that runs between the Sault and Hearst.

These are desperate times for a coalition lobbying to reinstate passenger rail service in northeastern Ontario.

The Coalition for Algoma Passenger Trains (CAPT) and the Mask-Wa Residents Association are applying a full-court press on Ottawa to immediately restore service between Sault Ste. Marie and Hearst passenger service.

In a May 12 news release, the group is asking for public support behind an online letter to Transport Canada, Minister Marc Garneau, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Sault Ste. Marie MP Terry Sheehan and Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing MP Carol Hughes.

With the summer tourism season fast approaching and no new operator in sight, the group wants the service on the former Algoma Central Railway line to “be put back in service right away.”

The service was discontinued by the track’s owner, CN Rail, last July after a third-party operator, Michigan’s Railmark, was dropped by CN last year.

The popular Agawa Canyon excursion service continues to run.

The Missanabie Cree First Nation, based in Sault Ste., Marie, have a proposal to operate the train, but the details of how and what kind of service they would deliver are scarce.

In their statement, the coalition said the absence of the service has created “substantial hardships for residents, businesses and other passengers.  Most passengers have no other way to travel to their properties and businesses.”

The coalition insists that much of the 470-kilometre line is inaccessible by public road and logging roads are unsafe, leading to injuries and damages to vehicles.

“The Algoma passenger train has been the only safe, affordable, all-season access into the Algoma wilderness rail corridor for over 100 years,” said the release.

“We have been patient with the process, but we have suffered substantial losses to the local economy and employment as a result of the cancellation of the passenger train service last year, as well as loss of safe, reliable access to our residences, businesses and recreation.  We question why the Algoma passenger train service has been allowed to lapse for almost a year given the social, economic, employment and tax generation values it supports as shown in the BDO Canada report of 2015.”