1 March 2005
Railway
"Eyesore" Irks Rural Residents
Winnipeg - Hundreds of
decommissioned rail cars are ruining the view for some residents in the Rural Municipality of
Rockwood.
About 300 Canadian Pacific Railway cars have been sitting on a rail line near a residential area for
eight weeks, to the dismay of many area residents.
Ken Hibbitt, deputy reeve of the municipality, says he's heard plenty of complaints from people who
say the cars are unsightly, and they're tired of having a stretch of rusty,
graffiti-covered rail cars for a view.
"It is a bit of an eyesore if you were living beside it. Like, I don't live there and I don't
have to look at them, but if you had to get up in the morning and look at railway cars all day, it
wouldn't be a very nice sight," he says.
"They put them there for storage reasons, I guess, as far as we know. It's their own land, that's
what we're telling the people. We can't really do anything about it."
Ed Greenberg, spokesman for CP Rail, says Canadian Pacific does own the land, and can therefore do
what it wants with the rail cars. He says CP often parks non-essential rail cars
temporarily in areas throughout Canada and the United States.
"We are making what we consider operational decisions to find a spot for these cars to be parked
for the time being, but they will be eventually moved to their next destination," he says.
Greenberg says the cars are scheduled to be moved in about a month.
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