(The following story by Jennifer Hamilton-McCharles appeared on The North Bay Nugget website on April 17, 2009.)
NORTH BAY, Ontario — Ottawa Valley Railway employees are caught in the middle of a dispute between two multi-national corporations, said the general chairman for Teamsters Rail Conference Line East which represents more than 50 Ottawa Valley Railway workers in the North Bay area.
Rene Leclerc said the dispute between Canadian Pacific Railway and RailAmerica is about who will pay for rail maintenance and much-needed upgrades to the tracks from Smiths Falls to North Bay.
Canadian Pacific owns the rail line, however RailAmerica, which operates Ottawa Valley Railway, uses the tracks to transport forest products and cargo.
Leclerc said he has heard rumours CP is considering shutting down the Smiths Falls to North Bay line because it doesn’t want to invest in track maintenance.
Canadian Pacific isn’t interested in investing. They’ll just claw back traffic on their line,” Leclerc said Friday morning from his office in Quebec.
I think this is a drastic attack from CP on a short, little railway. They don’t care about the people or North Bay or anyone,” he said.
In order to restore the track, each railway has to invest. Our members are worried and concerned, but at this moment there’s nothing we can do. It’s a fight between the two carriers.”
Several calls to media relations personnel at Canadian Pacific were not returned.
Ottawa Valley Railroad and RailAmerica also didn’t answer requests for an interview. Rail-America is a subsidiary of Fortress.
Leclerc said this isn’t the first time track repairs have had to be made.
In the past, speed reductions were in place because of the condition of the tracks, he said.
Some improvements have been made, however Leclerc said the tracks have to be constantly maintained and repaired.
Nobody wants to see this line shut down, but I guess it’s possible,” Leclerc said.
We just hope this gets resolved.”