Move CP Rail yards from Winnipeg core, says MP

A Winnipeg NDP MP wants to see the CP Rail yards that border the North End torn up and moved out.

Pat Martin says the idea to develop the land is old. But the time is now.

"If you take the worst industrial eyesore in the city and flip it over and turn it into the most beautiful jewel in the crown, you've transformed the image and the atmosphere of the entire area," he said.

Martin thinks the CP yards should be relocated to a shared rail facility at the CentrePort inland port facility.

And then he wants the old rail yard area cleaned up and turned into "greenspace, housing, recreation, a modern, new subdivision, right in the heart of the city," he said.

"We keep building these subdivisions all around the outside of the city at great expense, yet here we could revitalize the heart of the city."

CentrePort, northwest of Winnipeg's James Richardson International Airport, is set to become a massive depot for the movement of goods.

CentrePort officials are studying the feasibility of a shared railyard.

Listen to more from Information Radio's special series "The next big thing."