All Aboard!

Jeff Green | Sep 21, 2016

Mystery Train. Slow Train Coming. Long Black Train. Morning Train. Night Train. Train to Paradise. Waitin' on a Train. Trains of no Return.

There is an endless string of song lyrics that come to mind about the idea of a return of passenger rail service to the Highway 7 corridor that is being floated by VIA Rail.

Trains make some of the best metaphors for life, and they tend to suggest things of the past, like those long-lost lovers who aren't coming back - gone forever as in “That train left the station” or “That train don't stop here any more”.

All the reflections on trains in this region for as long as anyone can really remember have been through a rear-view mirror. We've done “Rails to Trails”, murals about former train stations, and we celebrate the railroading past at the Central Frontenac Railway Heritage Park.

In fact last Saturday, as reported elsewhere in this issue, the Central Frontenac Railway Society held a gathering at the old caboose in Sharbot Lake to acknowledge granting agencies who have helped them install playground equipment and put up some new signage.

Meanwhile, VIA Rail is looking - we are not sure how seriously yet - at putting in a brand-new railroad a couple of feet from that very play structure. The vision is for passenger trains to pass that very spot on their way to the railway bridge under Road 38 as they speed towards Ottawa.

Oh, right, the bridge is no longer there. Last summer, with the help of a grant from the Province of Ontario, Central Frontenac removed the bridge because the train was never coming back.

This is something that Central Frontenac Mayor Frances Smith pointed out to Jacques Fauteux of VIA Rail when they met in August.

At that meeting, Fauteux told Smith, and some township and county staff, that one of the “options” VIA was looking at is a Toronto to Ottawa route. That route is described by a one-page document that VIA Rail provided at the time as the “Shining Waters Railway Plan, which aims to provide passenger service from Toronto to Havelock, and its extension all the way to Ottawa, using existing or discontinued railway rights of way.”

He apparently did not seem too worried about the missing bridge.

Smith did not make any public announcements after the meeting because it was so preliminary.

However since August, contractors working for VIA have been around the township along the path of the Trans-Canada Trail, and they have been pretty chatty about what they are working on and what VIA is thinking of doing.

“I thought that since the story is going around anyway I might as well share everything we know, which isn't much,” said Smith this week, after releasing the one-page document called Key messages – VIA Rail due diligence in Havelock subdivision at last week's township council meeting.

As the document states VIA is indeed looking at building a rail line alongside the trail, and apparently a decision on the new line will be made in early 2017.

To that end “contractors from VIA Rail will be conducting basic inspections on former railbeds and infrastructure ... in your region in the coming weeks ... technical inspections will provide a better understanding of the potential route options,” the document says.

While the document talks about benefits such as “shorter trip times than using the car; local service between Toronto and Ottawa; regional economic development; and improved quality of life,” it does not say anything about whether the train will provide service to and from local communities.

Fauteux told Smith that he expects it would take three construction seasons to complete the project, which mean trains could be passing through the township by 2019.

This is a lot to take in.

For the past 50 years, long before many of us came to live in this part of the world, the loss of the train has been a palpable part of local life. The train put the area on the map; the train meant jobs, commerce, etc.

As the train culture waned and then disappeared, this region has been surviving as bedroom communities, with local agriculture where it is viable, a sprinkling of tourism, cottage development, and e-community thrown in the mix. As far as our lifestyles are concerned, we all drive to get everywhere we have to go. We think nothing of driving 45 minutes each way to buy something or visit a friend or go to work.

We are over the idea of a train coming through; we don't even know what it would mean. Would we drive less? Would the train put the area back on the map?

If passenger trains do come back, which is still a stretch to even consider, will there be a stop anywhere in Central Frontenac? The nightmare scenario is that of trains plowing through the countryside, and the hamlets of Kaladar and Sharbot Lake, without even slowing down, leaving nothing but noise and dust in their wake, like what vehicles do along Highway 7 in this region.

If, however, the train does stop here, it would represent the largest opportunity for growth since the train left in the first place.

“Take the train to #INFrontenac and see what we have to offer” - I can see the billboards now.

But first there are some massive logistics. If indeed the new train is going into the same exact location as the old line, what happens to the trail?

VIA will have to figure out how to get through environmental assessments along the shores of Big Clear, Bass and Sharbot Lakes, and will have to deal with the Sharbot Lake Family Health Team and Dental offices, access to the Sharbot Lake beach, the Maples Restaurant, etc., all of which are located within metres of the former tracks.

From the far western edge of Elm Tree Road, all the way to Fall River Road, the former rail line meanders through the countryside along Elm Tree, Brock, Clarke, and Brewer Roads before plunging through Sharbot Lake. It would be quite an involved construction project.

And then there is that former bridge over Road 38.

According to Frances Smith and some of the people who have talked to contractors who are scoping out the project, VIA Rail seems confident that if they want this to happen, they can make it happen, and quickly.

From a local perspective, if and when we decide to take this seriously - and I have to admit I find the whole thing hard to believe - we need to make a concerted effort to promote local interests and try to make a new train service a benefit to those of us who live here, and not just for those who are passing through on their way to somewhere else.