MONTREAL — The Canadian Pacific Railway, founded 121 years ago to build a transcontinental rail line with government subsidies and land grants, is pushing for a $2-billion “private-public partnership” between Montreal and Toronto, the Canadian Press reported.
The development could remove a million truck trips a year between Canada’s two largest cities and provide the basis for high-speed passenger rail service, the railway’s chief executive officer said Thursday.
Robert Ritchie told the Canadian Railway Club that this would be “a cheaper, smarter alternative” to taxpayer-funded highway expansion and maintenance.
“Simultaneously, we would improve the efficiency of the trucking industry and help solve some of the traffic congestion and pollution problems in Montreal and Toronto,” he said. “We would make the Canadian economy more productive and efficient, and provide Via Rail an opportunity to expand high-speed intercity passenger rail service.”
CPR is also involved in a proposal for $300 million in federal and Ontario government involvement in a proposed new rail tunnel under the Detroit River between Windsor and Detroit. The existing rail tunnel would be converted to road traffic in what is said to be the world’s busiest border crossing.
“As things stand now, 10 per cent of Canada’s GDP moves down a municipal street in Windsor with 16 traffic lights,” Ritchie commented.
Instead of unleashing the potential of railway transport, he said, governments discriminate against the industry, which he said pays $300 million a year in fuel and property taxes. Part of those fuel taxes pay for highways, while property taxes are levied on the railways’ track with no government services in return.
“This is a tax grab, pure and simple,” Ritchie said. “And, even worse, this is a tax grab that contributes to diminishing the role of railways. It confiscates money the railways would otherwise invest to the benefit of rail users and the general economy.”