To all concerned,
There is a train track that crosses our driveway, a gravel road leading from my great-great grandparent’s house to “le Chemin New Erin”. This farm is part of the last remaining protected farm land in Quebec. Quebec is big but you cannot grow food up North.
When they built the railroad tracks it was meant to unite Canada. Blood, sweat, tax money, and slaves built these 40 000~ km of steel that used to link regional activities. When the railroads were first built they employed lots of people, created mini economies around the train stations, regional development flourished as it offered affordable, environmentally friendly travel. When they put the rail line across the farm land it was against people’s wishes but they proceeded.
In the early years the rail line was active and life in the country was happening my grandparents owned and operated the hotel next to the train Station in Saint Stanislas de Kostka. One winter there was a big storm and a train got stuck right in front. The next train coming up from Malone, unaware, crashed into the other train. My grandmother distributed food and coffee, gave the village doctor iodine, clean cloths for bandages and helped in caring for the wounded passengers. The railroad company never even sent a thank you to my grandmother. History does not change when private companies are interested in profits only.
Over the years the railroad tracks have been bought and sold but not maintained.
Their goals are simple: maximum profits for minimum expenses. Passenger rail cars were eliminated first, as they required too many employees and elevated costs. The cost of global warming is worst. Tourism could be better exploited, more profitable and affordable for larger number of Canadians and foreigners, they could take the train instead of long, expensive and polluting car rides.
This spring a train derailed between Toronto and Montreal. Why? The railroad tracks are in a state of disrepair and abandonment. Minimum maintenance work is done, and security is inadequate. The pegs that hold the tracks down are loose and sometimes missing altogether, the wood is rotten and covered up not to show. When the train passes it bounces and sways side to side.
What is more profitable than cargo? Dirty, polluted, sulfuric acid and chemical liquids as cargo. When the train heads south it carries wood, wood and more wood like if Canada was free trading it to the Americans, on the way back...Canada receives American garbage. Sulferic Acid, uidentified wagons with rust, more chemicals and empty wood wagons. The containers for the toxic juices, where do they go? Do they simply leave them in an abandoned rail yards somewhere, buried? Are we going to pay for the costs of cleaning up the “Toxic Yards” in Montreal?
More important than all, what if these trains, overloaded and unchecked, with more liquid wagons than legally allowed, speed through at night when government employees do not work say between 5 Pm and 9am. What will happen when it spills? Not everyone will be able to afford the economical crisis caused by toxic materials spilled into our unique, rare, limited water and food supply.
Over the years private companies have shown themselves to be neglectful and unwilling to participate in development, or offering services. These foreign owned companies do not care about Canadian Soil and Water as they do not live here and their children’s safety is not concerned.
The train once was stopped across the road leading to my farm, the locomotive engine was turned off and no one was around. Pregnant, I had to climb between the freights to cross afraid the train would start to move, I walked to the house to call the police and my municipality Godmanchester, 3 hours later the train moved. What if I had needed an ambulance?
After they repaired the railroad track they left the crossing as such, impassable with a low chassis car. Photo May 2007
Canada needs to repossess the railroad tracks and rent them out, develop and expand rail transit as in all other continents in the world. Furthermore there must be communication between various government transport security authority. Stricter controls at the border to ensure what is being transported must be established. Toxic materials should not be allowed to travel near cities or on farm land with a common water source. {nappe d’eau nephragique} Government must take responsibility and not shift it from provincial to federal and back again. A hotline or number that you can call before a chemical spill occurs as opposed to current system.
Lines on the map are drawn in the air but the railroad track cuts through the land and my heart.
Madeleine Chartrand Sperlich