Much angst has been generated over the last decade about the future of the former Algoma Central Railway (ACR), its abandoned Soo-Hearst passenger train and its suspended Agawa Canyon Tour Train.\u00a0 But have no fear!\u00a0 The Soo political brigade had good news in the wake of the December 17th announcement by CN that the ACR is up for sale or abandonment.<\/p>\n
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Sault Ste. Marie Mayor Christian Provenzano dipped into a barrel of clich\u00e9s to find these words: \u00a0\u201cThe city became aware of the sale prior to the asset being exposed to the market and we have been in constant communication with CN and the investment bank it has hired to market the asset…\u00a0 We are confident that if we stay engaged and continue to stress the importance of the tour train to our community and Ontario\u2019s tourism industry that the end result of this process can be positive.”<\/p>\n
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This is like the captain of the Titanic telling frightened passengers, \u201cNothing to worry about; folks.\u00a0 We\u2019re only stopping for ice.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The ACR and all its passenger and freight operations have been in big trouble for many years, dating back to when the privately-owned railway was bought by the American regional railway, Wisconsin Central (WC) in 1995.\u00a0 That\u2019s the same group that also bought the former CP line on which the Lac-Megantic disaster occurred in 2013 due to under-investment and sloppy practices, both sanctioned by Stephen Harper\u2019s Conservative government.<\/p>\n
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When CN came a-calling in 2001, WC gladly sold its whole Midwestern U.S. and Canadian operation to them, including the ACR, which had been propped up with provincial and federal emergency funding from the start.\u00a0 CN didn\u2019t want the ACR, but they did want WC\u2019s American main line to complete their \u201clariat of steel\u201d around the southern shores of the Great Lakes.\u00a0 Northern Ontarians might be concerned by the fact that this expanded CN system makes it possible to route traffic between Ontario and Western Canada through Chicago and dispense with the 1,200-mile slog from Toronto to Winnipeg on Canadian rails.\u00a0 The ACR was just the booby prize CN had to accept \u2026 for a while.<\/p>\n
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CN grudgingly accepted the continuation of the Agawa Canyon Tour Train and the costly, underused Soo-Hearst passenger train, which was just an Uber on rails for some Soo cottagers who should have been lobbying for upgrades to the access roads into their camps from Highway 17. Instead, they banded together with a member of the First Nations to wring money out of the feds for studies of their own choosing.\u00a0 Produced with direct and indirect public grants, none of them justify relaunching this train over its full route with its clapped-out equipment.<\/p>\n
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Nor have credible alternatives been examined to provide less expensive and more effective rail service on the portions of the ACR that lack adequate public transportation or road access.<\/p>\n
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The Canyon Train is merely collateral damage in this game.\u00a0 The service was built from scratch by experienced railroaders running the ACR in the late 1960s.\u00a0 Touching up some old equipment and applying some real marketing savvy, it became a major Ontario tourism draw.\u00a0 The same occurred thanks to the railway veterans then running the provincially-owned Ontario Northland Railway (ONR), which launched its Cochrane-Moosonee Polar Bear Express.<\/p>\n
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Through the years, as these two railways fell apart for financial and political reasons, the two tourist trains spiraled downward and lost their appeal, while costs soared.<\/p>\n
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Today, the future of the ACR as a functional railway remains in doubt.\u00a0 CN doesn\u2019t need it, even if it might eventually haul chromite from a Ring of Fire trans-load centre at Sioux Lookout to the proposed Soo refinery.\u00a0 ACR freight traffic has dwindled, no freight trains have operated south of Hawk Junction since April 2020.\u00a0 The deteriorated track is thickly pitted with slow orders.\u00a0 Derailments and washouts indicate this is a terminally ill former railway.<\/p>\n
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The Canyon Train\u2019s overseer, the Sault Ste. Marie Economic Development Corp., has displayed no knowledge of real-world railroading or tourism marketing.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never received an answer about the longevity of the ex-CN Tempo cars built in 1968 and bought back from a Denver owner in 2010.\u00a0 Shades of the situation involving 1967 GO commuter cars of the same design that brought down the ONR\u2019s Toronto-Cochrane Northlander passenger train in 2012.<\/p>\n
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So, if you believe the glowing words about the future of the ACR and the Canyon Train, then I\u2019ve got a bridge in Brooklyn and some prime Florida wetlands for you.\u00a0 Real cheap, too!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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