Canada's 'Railway City' wants passenger trains back.
asserted
City → want → trains
Like much of the country, it's not so simple
St. Thomas, Ont., is a vivid example of the obstacles facing communities across Canada
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Thomas → face → Canada
To an outsider, the 3.2-hectare sea of grass surrounding the Elgin County Railway Museum in the heart of St. Thomas, Ont., might look like an urban park.
uncertain
sea → surround → park
That's not what Wil Zufelt sees.
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Zufelt → see → what
"You say green space," he said.
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he → say → space
"We're actually sitting in the middle of a brownfield site that was left behind from the railroads."
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that → sit → railroads
Built in 1913, the hulking red-brick building was once the Michigan Central Railway Locomotive Shops, where locomotives were maintained and overhauled by a staff of 400 workers.
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locomotives → build → workers
It's one of three survivors of a sprawling railway complex that once had 112 buildings.
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that → sprawl → buildings
The old building is now a museum, but it can't welcome visitors.
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it → welcome → visitors
It's literally crumbling.
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It → crumble → ?
The city engineer ordered it closed after finding its walls were bowing and its ceiling was unsafe.
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ceiling → order → ?
'Pay attention to what we're losing'
"
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we → pay → what
People need to wake up," Zufelt said.
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Zufelt → need → ?
"Pay attention to what we're losing."
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we → pay → what
Zufelt heads Railworks, the organization behind three of St. Thomas's surviving railway landmarks.
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Zufelt → head → landmarks
He's launching a campaign to raise $8 million to save and restore the former locomotive shops.
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He → launch → shops
The goal is to turn the old locomotive shops into not just a museum, but an active gathering place at the centre of a redeveloped downtown.
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goal → turn → downtown
"I want it to be more than alive.
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it → want → ?
I want it to be the centre of St. Thomas," he said.
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he → want → Thomas
"That's what success is, is putting a heartbeat back in the core and then you have your arteries and everything pumps out from the middle."
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everything → put → middle
By 1914, eight railways converged on St. Thomas, bringing more than 100 trains through the southwestern Ontario city every day.
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railways → converge → city
Its location made it a major hub for American rail traffic between Detroit and Buffalo and between New York and Chicago.
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it → make → York
The cross-border connection was so important, at one point, St. Thomas even had a U.S. consulate.
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Thomas → have → consulate
Today, the community that calls itself the "Railway City" has no rail connection at all.
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that → call → connection
Tracks that snake everywhere and nowhere
The railways are long gone, but their remains are scattered across the city — empty lots filled with rubble from where railway buildings once stood, abandoned shunting yards, railway spikes that turn up like seashells on a beach and tracks that snake everywhere and nowhere.
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that → snake → beach
The old London to Port Stanley Railway runs past a restored station in St. Thomas before it abruptly ends — disappearing into the grass of a residential neighbourhood.
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it → run → neighbourhood
The missing connection was the subject of a 1990 federal transport order requiring CN to replace the missing diamond at its own expense once the line reached CN tracks.
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line → miss → tracks
But the physical connection was never completed.
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connection → complete → ?
Today, part of the former route is blocked by a parking lot enclosed by a fence.
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part → block → fence
The Canadian Transport Agency told CBC News the order remains in effect and CN's obligation would still apply if the physical connection were made.
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connection → tell → effect
CN did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.
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CN → respond → time
What St. Thomas tells us about Canada's railways
St. Thomas is an unusually stark example of what happened in communities across Canada as the railway era receded, according to Thomas Blampied, a historian who studied Canada's railway history at the University of Toronto.
uncertain
who → tell → Toronto
"Cars started to eat away at passenger revenue from railways and trucks started to take some of the freight traffic," he said.
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he → start → traffic
As passengers moved to cars and freight moved to trucks, railways abandoned increasingly unprofitable routes.
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railways → move → routes
They didn't simply stop running trains.
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They → stop → trains
Much of the infrastructure was removed with them.
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Much → remove → them
"Do we keep the infrastructure — so the track, all the signals, all the crossing warnings — do we keep it all intact?" Blampied said.
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Blampied → keep → it
In some cases, the rails were sold for scrap, in many cases, he said, "it made economic sense to completely withdraw."
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it → sell → sense
But even where the railway lines survived, the network changed.
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network → survive → ?
Canada looks to bring passenger rail back
Anthony Perl, a transportation policy expert at Simon Fraser University, said railways removed passing tracks and other infrastructure once passenger trains disappeared, reshaping the network around the needs of freight.
"We had a great streamlining, or right-sizing, or value engineering, pick your term — of the national rail infrastructure in Canada as passenger trains went away," Perl said.
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Perl → look → Canada
…and 12 more, not listed.
The Aporia
