Light in the tunnel for VIA Rail upgrade plan?
If you’ve taken the early morning VIA Rail train between Quebec City and Montreal in the darkness of winter and have a window seat on the southward facing side, you are treated to what might be described as a terrifying thrill ride, or rather a thrill while sitting still on a siding.
The passenger train slows to a halt less than an hour out of station. Moments later a freight train comes barrelling along the main track, seemingly inches away from the window glass on the passenger train, with the breath-taking power of millions of tons of metal hurtling along thin strips of steel.
But the freight train goes on and on and on, and eventually the passenger’s awe starts to turn to annoyance at having been made to wait so long while cargo takes precedence over people.
This, in brief, is the main reason VIA Rail has been pushing its $6 billion plan for high frequency rail (HFR) service on the Quebec City to Windsor corridor. Reports have been surfacing for the past few months that the federal government will green light the project sometime this (election) year.
When VIA Rail unveiled the HFR vision in early 2016, the crown corporation president, Yves Desjardins-siciliano, rosily speculated the new line, featuring dedicated track, could be running in the fall of 2019.
As a Transport Department feasibility study nears completion, that target date has been postponed considerably, although based on the president’s threeyear timeline, the HFR could be operating by 2022.
Details of the route have not been revealed, but it is assumed at least the Quebec City to Montreal stretch of the line will revive passenger rail service on the historic former Canadian Pacific route on the north shore of the St. Lawrence.
That line, which the Quebec Gatineau Railway Company purchased in 1997, runs through Portneuf, Trois Rivieres, and Joliette on its way to Montreal. (It also passes a place on the map near Batiscan called Brise Culotte, for whatever reason).
Quebec-gatineau is in turn owned by Genesee & Wyoming Inc., headquartered in Darien, Connecticut, which operates 120 short-line railways in five countries around the world. The company traces its history to a salt mine at Retsof, New York, once one of the largest in the world.
One of the former CP spur lines Quebec-gatineau still operates is the track that runs through the tunnel dug beneath Quebec City from the north near Boulevard Charest to the riverfront at l’anse au Foulon at the foot of the Plains of Abraham. The story of that tunnel is an intriguing bit of Canadian rail and ship lore.
CP needed a way to get passengers on board its ships whose height prevented them from passing under the Quebec Bridge. Having both the resources and boldness, the company decided to build a tunnel to connect a dock at l’anse au Foulon with its main rail line to the north. Train passengers from all over Canada and the United States would arrive at the dock and then board the ship for Europe or elsewhere.
In an engineering and construction feat that might inspire the builders of Quebec City’s proposed tramway, 600 workers dug the 1.6 km tunnel in less than one year. The tunnel was opened in time to welcome the Empress of Britain (one of two CP ships to bear the name) on June 1, 1931.
The company that built the tunnel, incidentally, was run by Harry “Big Pants” Mclean, a wildly colourful character, who worked on many of the big infrastructure projects in a bustling Canada, and whose motto was “Get the goddamn thing done - never mind asking anyone’s permission.”
Many years ago, on a warm summer’s day, a dad, his two sons and the dog, armed with a flashlight, headed off on an adventure to walk the full length of the tunnel. At the midway point, there was scarcely a glimmer of light visible from either entrance to the tunnel. An eerie feeling to be in complete darkness deep beneath a busy city.
It’s hard to get big things built these days. As VIA Rail is discovering, it’s just as hard to get some things rebuilt. But now there could be some light at the end of the tunnel leading to a brighter future for passenger rail travel.