Council opted to roll the dice rather than place the safe bet last week.
It voted to spend $3.6 million to purchase the tracks along 26 miles of rail line from Chatham to just north of Wallaceburg.
Council was faced with a dilemma, as a locked-in purchase option for the track with Canadian Pacific was to expire March 2. Council had the choice to let it lapse and risk the track being pulled up by CP, or to take ownership of the line.
Read the full story here, by Bruce Corcoran: Council spending $3.6M to purchase rail line
What do you think about this decision?
Please let us know by voting in our poll below, and comment below as well:
[polldaddy poll=”8692365″]
It is quite evident by your poll that more then 50% of the public are not aware of the value of rail and the service it provides. Here are some simple faccts, 1 . if the rails where lifted and removed, the cost to replace them would be more then 10 times the cost. 2. Out Ontario government bought about 35 miles of track last year from Georgetown to Kitchener from CN for the sum of $76M and CK purchased the rail and property for about $4.4 M . 3. Out largest industry in CK is agriculture and each year grows hundreds of thousands of tons of beans, wheat and corn. Each hopper handle 2 transport loads which will not be on our community roads. . It takes 0.8 HP per ton to operate a train and 10 HP to move a loaded truck.. 4.. show me a large industry, and I will show you they have rail service. 5. Rail service is a tool for economic development, if you want big industry and good paying jobs to come to CK, CK needs a industrial rail line to trans load to rail and entice large industry to CK.