Churchill, MB
Oct 10th 2017, 8:41 pm
#1
Yo
Thread Starter
Joined: Nov 2012
Location: UK
Posts: 24,474
Churchill, MB
Had not heard about that damaged train line to Churchill until the recent story on the The National. Quite a tragedy for the town, and hard to believe the Feds could not fix the line and get the US owner to pay later. On the other hand, the proposed port and pipeline investment from Alberta seemed a good solution for their obvious economic woes, and should have been given further consideration. Anyone following this story?
Oct 10th 2017, 9:12 pm
#2
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Nov 2011
Location: Somewhere between Vancouver & St Johns
Posts: 19,850
Re: Churchill, MB
So sell a rail line to a private US company who initially knew about what problems that line had and the same weather every year and the potential for flooding.
They don't want to spend the money to fix it. Calls for the Govt to fix it and perhaps recover the money later as air and rail link are vital for Churchill i.e. no road access.
Yup seems very well thought out on both sides.
They don't want to spend the money to fix it. Calls for the Govt to fix it and perhaps recover the money later as air and rail link are vital for Churchill i.e. no road access.
Yup seems very well thought out on both sides.
Oct 11th 2017, 1:08 am
#3
Listen to the Music
Joined: Mar 2013
Location: Fraser Valley BC
Posts: 4,723
Re: Churchill, MB
Could this be a 'Del Boy' type deal?
Company buys crap track, waits for weather to trash it, refuses to repair it, waits for bleeding hearts to wail at government, government caves in and subsidises repairs, company sells crap track at a profit.
Of course, if the government wasn't spending 2.4B on bilingual services then we could afford to get the trains to run on decent track and on time.
Company buys crap track, waits for weather to trash it, refuses to repair it, waits for bleeding hearts to wail at government, government caves in and subsidises repairs, company sells crap track at a profit.
Of course, if the government wasn't spending 2.4B on bilingual services then we could afford to get the trains to run on decent track and on time.
Oct 11th 2017, 2:36 am
#4
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Feb 2013
Location: BC, Canada
Posts: 3,874
Re: Churchill, MB
I've been watching it on and off since it happened ............. we'd been planning a trip by rail to Churchill, put it off last year 
We wanted to travel there and back by train, and spend 4 or 5 days in Churchill which would allow us to go on the tundra at least twice, but trying to do it independently was very hard as the tour companies based in Winnipeg book up all the hotel rooms for the next season before the end of "this" season.
All the tours fly in one day, go on the tundra, fly out the next day ........ so you get 2 nights in Churchill.
We could do our trip for less than half the tour price, if we could only have found a hotel room, train trips and tundra vehicles all available at the same time
But the problem is about par for the course in both Canada and the US .............. the tracks owned by someone else and the train companies using those tracks having problems.
In Canada, it is usually CN owning the tracks causing problems for VIA, or CP owning the tracks and insisting that the Rocky Mountaineer use CP engineers. This one to Churchill was a very strange deal.
We wanted to travel there and back by train, and spend 4 or 5 days in Churchill which would allow us to go on the tundra at least twice, but trying to do it independently was very hard as the tour companies based in Winnipeg book up all the hotel rooms for the next season before the end of "this" season.
All the tours fly in one day, go on the tundra, fly out the next day ........ so you get 2 nights in Churchill.
We could do our trip for less than half the tour price, if we could only have found a hotel room, train trips and tundra vehicles all available at the same time
But the problem is about par for the course in both Canada and the US .............. the tracks owned by someone else and the train companies using those tracks having problems.
In Canada, it is usually CN owning the tracks causing problems for VIA, or CP owning the tracks and insisting that the Rocky Mountaineer use CP engineers. This one to Churchill was a very strange deal.
