10 December 2010
Railway Rip Up Blamed on Politics
|
Danny Dineen said he believes politics is playing a role in a government decision to rip
up a stretch of abandoned railway near Nackawic. |
Nackawic New Brunswick - The New Brunswick Recreational Rail Riders Club is blaming partisan
politics for being kicked off a 15-kilometre stretch of abandoned track near Nackawic.
The club received notice from the provincial government in December that their lease on the track has been terminated.
Danny Dineen, whose father was a locomotive engineer for 32 years, has spent the last 11 years using the stretch of abandoned track between Nackawic and
Millville.
"It's an opportunity to get out and ride the rails. The feel of the machine, you know, things I'm used to from when I'd see [trains] going when I was a
boy," Dineen said.
Dineen has a small engine, which he calls a putt-putt, that he rides the rails on.
The club leases the rail line from the Department of Natural Resources and Dineen said the group had four years left in the lease until it was cancelled this
month.
Danny Dineen said he believes politics is playing a role in a government decision to rip up a stretch of abandoned railway near Nackawic. The department said
it wants to convert the rail bed into a multi-purpose trail.
He said there is no reason to remove the rails in order to have a multipurpose trail.
Dineen said a similar club in New Hampshire has a rail line and a trail network that share the same area.
But Dineen said there may be other factors at play, he said he suspects politics and a local businessman are to blame for the lease hitting the end of the line.
"He came in here to the rail yard and he said to me, he said, the only reason why I don't have this rail line to tear up [is] I'm on the wrong side of the
government. The Liberal party were in power at the time," he said.
The person who allegedly would benefit from the demise of the rail line owns a fabrication business, Nackawic Mechanical. David Young said in a telephone
interview that he was not aware the club's lease had been cancelled.
And, he said he's had no communication with new Progressive Conservative government about salvaging the rails.
He said he made an offer for the track about 10 years ago, but it was turned down.
Young said he's been removing abandoned rail lines since 1983, and he knows the market for re-using or re-fabricating the track.
A Department of Natural Resources spokesperson said staff are still working on the process for removal of the old rail line.
|
