(The Winnipeg Sun published the following story by Ross Romaniuk on its website on September 11.)
WINNIPEG — City officials are celebrating a shift of Canadian National’s intermodal truck and train traffic to St. Boniface — but homeowners there aren’t welcoming the noise and activity moving in from south Tuxedo.
A transfer of CN Rail’s Winnipeg intermodal operations to the company’s Symington Yard was made official yesterday and trumpeted as a way to give the transport giant more elbow room for its truck-train transfers.
GOOD TIMES
Coun. John Angus, head of the city’s public works committee, said the move also spells good times immediately ahead for Kenaston Boulevard motorists longing for a tunnel beneath CN’s main line trains.
“Absolutely, it’s a good thing — it frees up land at Kenaston and Wilkes (Avenue) and allows us to proceed with an underpass at a reduced cost,” Angus (St. Norbert) told The Sun. “It means we can … start construction next spring.”
But while Route 90 drivers can look forward to a $40-million underpass, Coun. Russ Wyatt says his east-end constituents — particularly those along Plessis Road on Symington Yard’s boundary — have been burdened with noise and big rigs they didn’t bargain for when buying their homes.