SYDNEY, N.S. — The Nova Scotia government is fighting plans by RailAmerica to abandon freight rail service in Cape Breton, the Canadian Press reports.
The province filed an intervention on Wednesday with the Utilities and Review Board over an application from the Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway.
The board has set aside two days to hear the railway’s application to end its service between St. Peter’s Junction and Sydney.
“Our submission . . . makes a clear argument that the entire CBNS operation from Truro to Sydney is profitable and that the private sector should continue to seek a solution to the Cape Breton half of the line,” said Economic Development Minister Cecil Clarke in a news release.
Rail America, which operates the railway, has been trying to shed the 161-kilometre stretch of the Truro-to-Sydney short-line since losing its two biggest customers — the Sydney Steel mill and Devco coal mines.
Critics of the service cuts have said a functioning railway is important to Cape Breton’s economy and all efforts must be made to save it. The short-line railway has about 20 customers, including a number of manufacturers of plastic products.