Cape Breton group fights to save railway

A community group hoping to save Cape Breton’s rail line is hosting a public meeting Monday night, as Utility and Review Board hearings get underway to withdraw service. 

The current owners of the Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway, Genesee and Wyoming, have applied to discontinue the Cape Breton portion of the line.

David Rae is dean of the Shannon School of Business at Cape Breton University, and the chair of a community group hoping to save the infrastructure. 

"Our main aim is to make sure that the right of way from Sydney to St. Peters junction, just outside Port Hawkesbury, is maintained so that the line is kept, the rails stay down and most importantly of all, the bridges stay there so that the line can be protected in perpetuity for the community of Cape Breton — that’s the most important thing," said Rae. 

"We know if the line is lost, that it is forever. It will be gone and it will be impossible to reinstate it." 

Rae has had experience working with community groups in the United Kingdom to save local rail lines. 

The community group — which includes representatives from the Cape Breton Partnership, the Sydney Chamber of Commerce and local business owners — wants to provide options to make sure the line is saved. 

Rae says the group is prepared to take ownership of the the line, if it comes to that. It would seek to purchase the entire line from Sydney to Truro, but they’re waiting for information to come from another group working with Geoff MacLellan, the province's transportation minister. 

"We don’t yet have a firm business proposal. The reason being that research and a number of studies are taking place to inform Minister MacLellan’s group, so that will tell us much more about the condition of the line, the options for future development and the current traffic flows," said Rae. 

Seeking government help

The group is proposing using the Community Economic Development Investment Fund to buy and operate the line. 

"The aim would be to set up a company so that company can borrow money and, indeed, that can take the risk but also that it will limit the risk. Clearly, this whole approach has to be community based. It needs to be supported by the municipalities, by the provincial government, even by the federal government,"  said Rae. 

"We have many ideas about the potential growth of the line in the future because we believe it can create jobs, it can create businesses and it can be a vital freight route for Cape Breton businesses in the future."  

The public meeting on the rail line takes place Monday night between 6 and 8 p.m. at the Civic Centre in Sydney.