22 October 2010

MM Fights to Keep Ottawa Valley
Rail Line Open

The Ottawa Valley Rail line runs from Chalk River to Smiths Falls, via
Almonte and Carleton Place. The Carleton Place portion of the line is
seen here, at Albert Street, looking north towards Almonte.

Mississippi Mills Ontario - Mississippi Mills town councillors are hoping to convince the federal government will allow the Ottawa Valley Railway to remain open.
 
Ramsay Ward Coun. John Edwards asked for a special discussion on the issue at Mississippi Mills' town council's committee of the whole meeting on the evening of Monday, 18 Oct 2010.
 
"I believe we need to lobby hard (to keep the line open) using a "green" agenda," wrote Edwards in an email to fellow councillors dated 7 Oct 2010. "No rail corridors in southern Ontario should be eliminated. Without a rail corridor link to Carleton Place, Almonte will never have access to a potential rail transit solution. This might be way off in the future but we owe it to the future to keep this option open."
 
The line in question runs from Chalk River in the north to Smiths Falls in the south.
 
Mississippi Mills Mayor Al Lunney reported to the councillors at the meeting that he had spoken with Carleton-Mississippi Mills MP Gordon O'Connor about the issue, and that O'Connor would be in contact with Chuck Strahl, the federal Minister of Transport, Infrastructure, and Communities, "to see if we can get some kind of extension on this to allow people to lobby on this."
 
The federal government is being given the first opportunity to look at buying the rail line. The provincial government will then be offered a chance to look at buying the line, and then the City of Ottawa will be given a chance to consider a purchase.
 
"Then, it is in our hands," said Lunney, who added that, as of now, it appears that by April or May that the railway will start tearing up the rail lines.
 
Pakenham Ward Coun. Brenda Hurrle agreed that the line must be preserved in order to hold open the door for future transit options.
 
"We're going to find out very shortly that we don't have lots of oil," and that the oil Canada does have "is very dirty," from the Alberta oil sands, said Hurrle.
 
Ramsay Ward Coun. Jim Lowry wondered why the rail line was shut down in the first place, when there was "three to five miles of freight until the day it was cut off," he said.
 
Desmond Devoy.