(The Halifax Daily News posted the following article on its website on March 5.)
HALIFAX, N.S. — The province has helped find a new customer for a troubled railway that services Cape Breton, raising hopes the line may be saved.
Cecil Clarke, the province’s minister of economic development, said Monday that Nova Scotia Power Inc. has agreed to use the line, but he didn t provide details.
NSPI spokeswoman Margaret Murphy said the utility plans to move — at least 400,000 tonnes of coal per year from the coal piers in Sydney to its power plant at Point Tupper.
That translates into about 4,400 rail cars a year, close to the 5,000 to 6,000 cars Rail America told provincial regulators it needed to make a profit on the line.
Currently, coal for the power plants at Point Tupper and Trenton is shipped to Auld’s Cove on the Canso Causeway, then sent by rail to the respective plants.
Coal to fire the company’s plants in industrial Cape Breton is imported though Sydney and trucked to the plants.
Murphy declined to offer details of the agreement, including if there would be a public subsidy to help defray the cost of moving the coal from Sydney.
“We’re going to hear a little bit more about (the agreement) over the next week or so,” she said.
Department spokeswoman Mary Anna Jollymore said the province had only committed to providing an unspecified amount of infrastructure support to the railway, not a direct subsidy to move the coal.
“Really, the only thing that would be on the table would be infrastructure support,” she said.
Clarke said the province and the federal government will invest in upgrades to the rail line, but he didn’t say how much will be spent.
Rail America applied, and was given permission, to drop the Cape Breton portion of its line because of declining traffic last year.
Clarke said the deal to save the railway hinges on Rail America dropping its abandonment plans.
Fewer rail cars are coming off of the island because of the closing of federally owned coal mines and the loss of Sydney Steel.
Rail America said it will answer the proposal tomorrow.