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Montreal, Maine & Atlantic trains to return to Lac-Mégantic on Wednesday
Won’t that particleboard plant need tank cars of hazardous adhesives ?
So now the MM&A’s (former CPR) r-o-w is “municipal” property. Since when did a local municipality have the right to confiscate a railway’s property (r-o-w or otherwise)?
Get the trains rolling, into Maine and on to New Brunswick!
Did the tracks get relocated on to a new alignment? Were they always on an easement? The article is confusing and not complete.
@THOMAS GASCOIGNE - Leaving aside the fact that governments do, actually, have that right, rightly or wrongly (in the US they are obliged under the constitution to fairly compensate the people whose property they confiscate), there’s nothing in the above that suggests it was confiscated. What’s written is consistent with any number of scenarios, from the municipality always owning the property the railroad went through, to the municipality coming to an agreement with the MM&A, perhaps with the MM&A agreeing to give the land as part compensation.
People so quick to jump to anti-government conclusions these days even when there’s no grounds to do so - THANKS OBUMMER (etc).
There was talk a few months ago about relocating the tracks north of the town and connecting to the industrial spur to create a new main line. This new portion where there never was rail should be the municipal property mentioned.
Back in the days of the Quebec Central, rail routes ran west, east and north out of Lac-Megantic, joined together by a wye. At some point, the northern route was abandoned except for the west to north leg of the wye and some track required to serve the industrial park. The east to north leg of the wye that ran through a public park was removed.
After the disaster, the proposal was made to accelerate restoration of rail service by relaying the east to north leg through the municipal park to provide access to the industrial users. The west to north leg of the wye is in the middle of the area that requires full remediation to remove contamination and will take much longer to restore. I believe the story reports completion of the temporary track through the park. If you go to Google Earth you can see the alignment of the old east leg of the wye.
So, MM&A property was not confiscated, the local government worked constructively with industry and the railway to restore rail service.
I felt from the beginning of single person crews on MM&A that there would be some problem lurking in the future. There is nothing more safe than an additional set of eyes and senses of responsibility. Fr. J.