Derailment builds momentum for potential rail line relocation talk By: Kevin Rollason Posted: 7:10 PM CDT Friday, Apr. 21, 2023

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This article was published 21/04/2023 (899 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A train derailment that temporarily closed a major artery in Winnipeg has resurrected discussions about relocating rail lines outside the city.

More than 140 years after the CP Rail line first reached Winnipeg, business and political leaders at all levels were saying there should at least be talks on the subject, potentially opening up such land for development, including residential units.

Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson told reporters during a media scrum Friday she had already spoken briefly with Mayor Scott Gillingham — and would be talking again about it soon.

“We’ve been having this discussion about rail relocation for decades now,” she said.

“First of all, I wanted to say I’m thankful that no one got hurt as a result of this. But we need to start looking at what is that going to look like moving forward… It brings that whole issue to the forefront and I think Manitoba is uniquely positioned as a bit of a transportation hub in North America.”

Stefanson said any future discussion would not only involve the mayor, but also the federal government and business leaders.

“I’m willing to have those discussions to see what that might look like heading forward,” the premier said. “What does Manitoba look like 10, 20, 30, 50 years from now…. Those are discussions I think we should be having.”

Liberal MP and Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal said he, too, was “grateful no one was hurt” when 12 tanker cars derailed Friday morning at an overpass above McPhillips Street. All of the train cars remained upright.

Vandal (Saint Boniface—Saint Vital) said he had been in touch with the transport minister, who assured him that the department had been in contact with CP Rail.

“Since my time on Winnipeg council, I have been advocating for the relocating of the rail lines outside of the city,” Vandal said in a statement. “While this incident could have been much worse, this is further evidence that the relevant parties need to come together and address this issue.”

On July 6, 2013, 47 people were killed and downtown Lac-Mégantic, Que., was destroyed when a train carrying crude oil derailed and exploded.

In February, hundreds of residents in western Ohio were forced to flee when 38 rail cars derailed, including 11 containing hazardous materials which caught fire.

“While this incident could have been much worse, this is further evidence that the relevant parties need to come together and address this issue.”–Liberal MP and Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal

Prominent Winnipeg businessman (and longtime rail buff) Art DeFehr wrote a position paper in 2015 in favour of relocation, saying, based on comments by a senior CN Rail executive, it would cost about $1 billion to move the lines but free up about $300 million in land.

On Friday, DeFehr said he hasn’t changed his mind.

“Let’s do the research and stop wasting money on expensive underpasses,” he said. “Arguably, rails going through any populated area create a risk. Realistically, they cannot be moved out of every populated area in Canada or elsewhere, so in my mind that becomes a factor.

“(However) Winnipeg has an easy alternative: through the south flood plain.”

During last year’s mayoral campaign, Gillingham said he was in favour of “incremental rail relocation.”

“I’m fully aware, to move the rails within Winnipeg would be billions of dollars,” he said Friday. “It is a very complicate matter. We would need the co-operation of the major rail lines.”

The mayor said it would be more realistic at first to look at what spur lines or other parts of the rail system could be ripped out and developed.

“To me, that’s feasible,” he said. “Any talk of rail relocation would require all levels of government and the rail companies, at a minimum.”

“Any talk of rail relocation would require all levels of government and the rail companies, at a minimum.”–Mayor Scott Gillingham

In 2016, then-premier Greg Selinger committed $400,000 for a task force to look into Winnipeg rail relocation, headed up by former Quebec premier Jean Charest.

A few months later, the NDP was voted out and Progressive Conservative premier Brian Pallister’s government killed the study.

It is time to once again to look at relocation, Selinger said Friday.

“Thankfully, it doesn’t look like it was a dangerous incident (at McPhillips) but the incident in Ohio lately is a big concern,” he said.

“The short answer is: yes. The conditions for looking at rail relocation is now more possible than it has ever been. We have CentrePort (Canada inland port) well down the road and railways can come to that (west-edge Winnipeg) site. There are 20,000 acres there now.

“It can be done and it would be an advantage for business. And then there is the basic safety issue… a number of potentially dangerous goods (are transported) through here.”

NDP MP Leah Gazan (Winnipeg Centre), whose riding’s northern boundary is the CP Rail line, said the community has long called for such relocation.

“I totally support this,” Gazan said. “Our communities need to be safe… (the government) needs to deal with this issue and deal with the issue aggressively.”

Meantime, Social Planning Council of Winnipeg executive director Kate Kehler said the city is already reaping the benefits of rail relocation.

“Look at The Forks,” she said. “We have a clear example of what can happen if we reimagine space which is now covered by rail lines.

“If we could move (the north railyard), we could free up a whole chunk of land which could be properly developed… (It is) pretty well are a scar that divides the community.”

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Barry Prentice, a professor at the University of Manitoba and director of the school’s Transport Institute, said the Friday derailment took place on the main line, which has the company’s highest standards.

“But derailments are not that uncommon,” he said. “They happen… it is inevitable.”

And when it comes to rail relocation, one thing is true, Prentice said: “It will never get less expensive.”

“But the federal government will pay half, it would then be the province and the city to pay the rest. I don’t know if and when it will ever happen.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

Train derails on McPhillips bridge

Posted: 9:26 AM CDT Friday, Apr. 21, 2023

McPhillips Street is closed to northbound and southbound traffic between Jarvis and Logan avenues — and might remain closed for days — after a train derailment that saw 12 cars go off the track Friday morning.

Read full story

Kevin Rollason
Reporter

Kevin Rollason is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He graduated from Western University with a Masters of Journalism in 1985 and worked at the Winnipeg Sun until 1988, when he joined the Free Press. He has served as the Free Press’s city hall and law courts reporter and has won several awards, including a National Newspaper Award. Read more about Kevin.

Every piece of reporting Kevin produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.