(The following story by Gary Rennie appeared on The Windsor Star website on August 11.)
LAKESHORE — Via Rail Canada has created a storm of protest with plans unveiled Monday to go after the hundreds of homeowners along the Lake St. Clair shoreline who have illegally occupied railway lands to build garages, sheds, erect swing sets, basketball hoops, plant vegetables, store boats and park cars and trucks.
Via’s presentation to a standing-room-only council meeting was highlighted by pictures of Lakeshore children playing within a few feet of tracks used by trains travelling at up to 95 mph, eight times a day.
“We see this as a critical safety issue for us,” said Karl Coffen, Via’s director of shareholders relations. “We certainly need to fix this.”
As part of an $11.3-million plan to improve the safety of its rail line between Chatham and Windsor, Coffen said VIA wants to erect 18 miles of fence, six-feet high, to keep trespassers out.
Via owns as much as 50 feet of land north and south of its track bed, but wants to put the fence out about 25 feet, Coffen said. The fence wouldn’t be continuous because it wouldn’t be needed along farmland, he said.
But about 1,000 homeowners — about 90 per cent of them in urbanized areas of Lakeshore and the rest in Tecumseh — would be affected by the proposed chain link fence, Coffen said. Letters will go out to all of them shortly, he said.
Via wants to start construction of the fence early in 2009.
Most councillors and residents weren’t happy with Via’s plan, which many saw as an indirect way of increasing train speeds.
“I don’t see this as any of the town’s business to get involved in the policing of Via Rail property,” said Deputy Mayor Bob Sylvester. “I think this is an issue between yourselves and the people who are encroaching on your property.”
Sylvester said Via raised the same encroachment issues in the mid-1990s, sent out letters that got everybody along the Maidstone shoreline riled up and then backed off. “It got a whole lot of people upset and nothing was done,” he said.
“The difference this time is we have received instruction to do this,” said Christena Keon Sirsly, Via’s chief strategy officer. These safety issues have to be addressed to operate high-speed train corridors, she said.
Once the fence is erected and crossings improved, Via may be able to increase maximum train speeds in Essex County from 95 mph to 100 mph, similar to its speeds elsewhere, Sirsly said.
Crystal Beach resident Chris Paterson said many have occupied and maintained railway lands for so long without objection or payment of rents that they’ve become the real owners.
Sirsly said the Crown corporation’s lawyers would challenge any claim to ownership of railway property.
Paterson also wondered if the long-discussed shift of Via trains to CP lines would make construction of the fence unnecessary.
Sirsly said Via hasn’t given up on the idea of moving its trains to the CP line, but a study of that option isn’t complete. Even if approved, any move is at least five years away and the encroachment issues can’t be left that long, she said.
Based on a survey that Via has already done, Coffen estimated about 250 homeowners have illegally occupied railway lands with structures that must be moved.
In some areas of Lakeshore, portions of private and municipal roads are on railway property. Some homeowners have planted grass next to the railway bed or have paved parking areas alongside the tracks.
Crystal Beach resident Richard Teno said the fence would create safety hazards in some beach subdivisions with little room for vehicles unless railway lands are used.
Snow plows, police, fire and ambulances may have problems getting into and out of some areas, Teno said.
Coun. Francis Kennette asked Via to consider building a fence closer to its tracks, but as high as 10 feet to keep out trespassers.
In addition to reducing trespassing, VIA hopes the fence and removal of illegal structures will improve lines of sight for its train operators and motorists or pedestrians crossing the tracks, Coffen said.
With so many structures close to the tracks, it can be difficult to see or hear trains approaching, Coffen said.
Coun. Ray Lalonde, who has driven a school bus in the past, said he understood the difficulties of seeing trains with so many structures near the tracks. He recalled the bus company having to complain about a boat parked so close to the tracks near a crossing that drivers couldn’t see down the line, he said.
Coun. Al Fazio, whose home is close to the tracks, said Via should deal with the safety issues by slowing its trains.
Even after a fence is built, keeping it repaired will be an ongoing issue, Paterson warned. Tecumseh’s experience has shown children are always pushing out sections of the railway fence to make shortcuts across the tracks, rather than walk to crossings, he said.