Plan to move train tracks to city’s outskirts all but forgotten now

By the end of the last millennium, Metro Moncton, New Brunswick, residents couldn't wait for the day - and they were certain that it was coming soon - that the CN rail line that bisects the downtown would be moved to the city's outskirts, the Times & Transcript reports. Since then, nary a word.

"I’ve always wondered
why more wasn’t done on that," says Downtown Moncton Centreville Inc.
president Lawrence Forbes. "It would be interesting to see more study on
it."

As a young man, Forbes
was a delivery man who would have to race across town in order to avoid lengthy
traffic tie-ups due to the many level rail crossings that are one of Moncton’s
trademarks. Moncton was a major Canadian rail hub until almost the 1980s, and
the number and length of the trains coming into and out of the city would bring
traffic to a halt several times each day, sometimes for many minutes.

Nowadays, Moncton is a
one-track city, with rail traffic a fraction of what it used to be. And that’s
likely why talk of moving the train tracks to the city’s perimeter has died off
– train traffic just isn’t much of a hassle any more. For some, though, that’s
all the more reason to move them out of the city centre.

CN spokeswoman Julie Senécal
says the corporation, which owns the tracks, wouldn’t outright dismiss the
notion of moving the train tracks. Just don’t expect them to pay for it.

"It would have to be
at the city’s expense," Senécal says.

She couldn’t recall a
single instance of a city moving its entire rail system from the downtown to
the city’s outskirts. And while Senécal couldn’t put a price tag on such a
project, she’s certain it wouldn’t be cheap. It’s not just a matter of tearing
up two rails and putting them elsewhere, she points out. There’s the
time-consuming and expensive process of land acquisition, engineering, building
the rail bed and other infrastructure, she points out.

Those who used to argue
in favor of moving the tracks out of the downtown point out there are
advantages as well, such as the obvious time-savings for motorists who, no
matter the fact that there are fewer trains these days, still have to stop when
one passes by. As well, business and industry would benefit from having closer
rail links should the tracks be moved to one of the area’s industrial parks
that sit on Metro Moncton’s fringes.

And let’s face it, while
Moncton is still enamored with its railroad history, train tracks aren’t
particularly pretty to look at. For that matter, neither is downtown’s
distinctive Subway railway overpass over Main Street.

They further argue that
land freed by moving the tracks would be available for development and could
even be turned into a great walking and cycling trail right through the heart
of the municipality.

So just how often do the
movers and shakers of Metro Moncton bring up the subject nowadays at meetings,
or even simply over coffee?

"Never," Forbes
says. "I know that never’ is a big word. People from out of town will
mention it. But people from here don’t even see (the tracks.)"

Forbes suspects that’s
because low rail traffic makes the tracks hardly worth bothering for long-time
area residents who have become so used to them being in our midst. As well,
rail patterns have changed radically since the days when the topic was all the
rage in Moncton, Forbes points out.

Not only was the main
line through town always busy, but there were many spur lines through the heart
of the city as well. Most people have long forgotten that the present Vaughan
Harvey Boulevard used to be a busy rail line leading from the downtown to the
CN Shops that used to be the city’s major employer and which sat near what is
today’s intersection of John Street, Millennium Boulevard and Vaughan Harvey
Boulevard. There were even overpasses on Main Street and St. George Street
allowing traffic over the line.

With the millions of
dollars spent just a few years ago on a new rail overpass over Vaughan Harvey
Boulevard near the new Gunningsville Bridge, added to the fact that traffic
interruptions and noise problems caused by trains are but a fraction of what
they used to be, the issue of banishing trains to the outskirts of the city has
pretty much fallen off the radar in Moncton.

"What’s there now
for train traffic is just not as bothersome any more," Forbes says.

While it would be interesting
to find out exactly how much trouble it would be to move the tracks, Forbes
says, "I can’t imagine the municipality would be interested in spending
the kind of money it would cost to tackle a project like that."