Rail future in balance: deadline nears to save Algoma rail line.

• Author: Kelly, Lindsay
• Position: TRANSPORTATION

The City of Sault Ste. Marie should know in the new year if it can move forward with a plan to salvage the Algoma Central Rail passenger line that runs between the Sault and Hearst.

The city, which is leading the charge to save the line, put out a request for proposals (RFP), with a deadline of Sept. 19, to hear from proponents interested in taking over operation of the tour train line. The line's owner, CN Rail, simultaneously put out an RFP seeking a new operator for the passenger service.

City CAO Joe Fratesi, who chairs the ACR Passenger Service Working Group, said the working group is now vetting proposals from a shortlist, but that any of the four proponents that responded would offer a quality service to riders. "They are names that, in the rail world, are recognized existing operators," Fratesi said. "We'd be happy with any one of them, but we need to make sure that the business plan that they put to us and one that we pass on to the federal government is sound and reasonable, achievable and, at the end of the day, maintains those things that a year ago we said were important to protect."

Those things include employment, significant economic impact, and access to cottages and tourist resorts, which will be impacted if the proposal does not go forward. "There are many communities affected; there are many tourist operators affected," Fratesi said. "So, not only are we talking about jobs, we're talking about revenue to the government or economic activity, "and we're talking about the very fibre of some of these smaller more Northern communities that are at risk here because of the accessibility into and out of these communities if the rail doesn't stop there."

It's been almost a year since the federal government announced a $2.2-million reprieve to help save the rail line from permanent closure. In November 2013, the federal government announced it would stop subsidizing the rail line, which was followed up by CN Rail's own announcement that it would cease to operate the line by April 1, 2013.

In announcing the $2.2-million in funding last March, federal Transport Minister Lisa Raitt cautioned the working group that an ongoing year-to-year...