Sidetracked Sarnia still pushing for passenger rail upgrades

Eleven years after passenger rail service was halved in Sarnia, the fight to restore it goes on. .

Mayor Mike Bradley recently met in London with Via Rail president Mario Péloquin and federal Transport Minister Omar Alghabra, among others, the session focused on improving rail passenger service.

An announcement about restoring Train 82 service, dropped during the pandemic, which allows early-morning Southwestern Ontario passengers to get into Toronto by the start of the workday, followed.

While there were no Sarnia-specific commitments, Bradley said the meeting went well.

“The present system isn’t working and everyone there in the meeting agreed. . . the key task is to get the functionality of the present system working,” he said.

Part of that, he said, could include a bypass in Strathroy to give more room for passenger and freight rail in and out of Sarnia.

Part of the reason Sarnia’s service was cut to two trains in 2012 was because there was only one rail line available, and passenger rail ridership wasn’t strong.

Freight traffic through the area remains busy, with the tunnel under the St. Clair River to the United States.

But since then, growth at Lambton College means there’s also more demand for passenger train service, Bradley said.

“There’s a proposal, and I was saying to the minister, it’s like $30 or $40 million in infrastructure money, which over time is not a lot of money, to do a bypass in Strathroy,” he said.

“So the two could work with each other and it all goes back,” he said about passenger rail service, noting even in its diminished form, passenger trains in and out of Sarnia are occasionally stalled by freight trains that take priority.

Now, there’s one train out of Sarnia that leaves before 9 am and arrives in Toronto at almost 2 pm, if there aren’t delays, he said.

“It just isn’t a functional system for anyone,” he said. “You know, if you want to go to a ball game (in Toronto), you’re not going to get there on time.”

Bradley said he also repeatedly mentioned the work of Rail Advocacy in Lambton (RAIL), an advocacy group for rail service restoration.

Meeting minutes via Bradley note Alghabra also mentioned plans for some type of passenger rail legislation.

“This will take some work because CN and CP are very powerful lobbies,” Bradley said.

Because Via doesn’t operate its passenger trains on its own lines, freight trains on the privately-owned lines take priority.

“But Amtrack has — in theory, in the US — and has for years, (had) a right of way, and that’s all we’re asking for here (for Via),” Bradley said.

RAIL and Bradley recently called for the Ontario government to release the final report of the Southwestern Ontario Transportation Task Forceof which Bradley was a member.

Lambton County Council passed a motion in June also calling for the province and its transportation minister, Caroline Mulroney, to release the report that’s been sitting for more than a year and contains various practical suggestions for rail and other transportation systems in the region, Bradley said .

The report issue was also raised at the meeting, hosted by Alghabra, but no Ontario decision-makers were present, Bradley said.

“But it really is a frustration because we wouldn’t have put the time and effort into it — and I say we, the whole group of us — to end up with it sitting there.”

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