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Canadian government will not aid Cape Breton & Central Nova Scotia Railway
$2 million a year is enough, at least Canada gives you cash, see it don’t work and cuts it off, opposite here where we subsidize everything indefinitely regardless if its pouring money out like a siv.
OH DEAR !
USE IT OR LOOSE IT!
Question. Does Nova Scotia have enough business to support the province? Without the business to supply customers to use the railway a private operation is going to need subsides. One alternative is for Nova Scotia to railbank the line to have for better times. Even that is going to cost money. Otherwise time to pull up the rails.
The numbers given suggest that they only have 5% of the traffic it needs to be self-sustaining. How does the line benefit the region and country to justify covering the shortfall to such a degree?
Given the highway example, at least highways are not necessarily a financial transfer to one company to operate to the ostensible benefit of the area.
2 million is a drop in the bucket. Let this be a highway with aging bridges and watch the government money flow.
Glad I got to ride it I well remember pulling into Sydney hearing the conductor say “Change for the Newfoundland Ferry”
Mr. Norton, truer words were never spoken or written.
…and another piece of Canadian Railway history bites the dust. Without that line during the war for transport of war materials manufactured along the line (all kinds of military material) and essential freight, especially coal, to Sydney, the lines to Halifax would have been swamped beyond capacity, hampering the war effort
500 cars annually is about 1.4 cars daily. Three or four additional trucks could handle that without anybody noticing. And, the $2 million is what is being paid to subsidize the service now and G & W claims it is not enough. Time to stop the subsidies and let these lines stand on their own. If any of the posters here feel that they could run that line on 500 cars a year and cover costs I’m sure the province would let them try.
As far as Mr. Norton’s comment re: $2 million to repair a highway bridge, I’m sure he is right but at least the bridge would be used and once the bridge is repaired it is mostly good for another 30 or so years and won’t need another $2 million every year.
The line may be little used now but may be needed later. A good example are the rails of North Dakota. Reinstalling rails will be in excess of $2 million per mile so a subsidy in the short term may be a wise investment in future infrastructure.