Joe did a fantastic job

Carol Hughes, NDP MP for Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, lauded the efforts of the ACR Passenger Service Stakeholders Working Group in securing a third-party operator, who will operate passenger service between Sault Ste. Marie and Hearst as well as the Agawa Canyon Tour Train.

“I don’t think we would be talking about passenger services in anything but the past tense if there wasn’t such a strong and motivated group driving this process,” said Hughes by press release Friday.

CN announced early last year that the passenger service would cease to operate after March 31, 2014 because the federal government failed to renew a $2.2-million annual subsidy.

The working group secured a one-year extension and is awaiting word from the federal government about a request for $7-million over five years to help a third-party operator revive the line.

On Thursday the working group announced Wixom, Michigan-based Railmark as the successful third-party operator.

“CN operated the passenger train the same way they would operate a freight train, just moving people the way they would move freight. Railmark brings the experiential side, making the train an experience,” said Al Errington, co-chair of the Coalition for Algoma Passenger Trains and member of the working group.

Railmark’s president and CEO B. Allen Brown declined repeated requests to comment to SooToday on his plans for the operation.

Layoff notices have been handed out to employees working for the Algoma Central Railroad (ACR) as a result of the deal to hand operation of the line over to the third-party operator.

Hughes is calling on the federal government to accept the business case put forward by the working group and provide a $7-million subsidy over the next five years.

“I am hearing that the lack of certainty is affecting bookings since tourists are not happy to put a down payment on a vacation they aren’t sure they will be able to take,” said Hughes. 

“The amount is less than half of what the government would have been paying under that old arrangement and will protect a significant passenger rail economy and hundreds of jobs that rely on it in the process,” she added.

Errington said everything else is in place, “We just need the funding over the next five years. The plan is we will have it self-sufficient in five years and at the same time do a lot more economic development around the train.”

Sault Ste. Marie MP Bryan Hayes said he is currently acting as broker between the working group and Transport Canada.

”It’s me and my government that is going to make this happen, not Carol Hughes. It was me and my government that got the extension last year, it wasn’t Carol Hughes,” said Hayes by phone Friday.

Hayes said Lisa Raitt, Minister of Transportation, had hoped the one-year extension of the subsidy would be the last government money put into the line.

“She wanted the stakeholder group to come up with a solution that did not require public funding That hasn’t happened but I am confident the $7-million over five years is the end. We have to have faith that the stakeholder group, CN and the third-party operator will make this work,”

“I think the group has done a fantastic job thanks to CAO Fratesi and I think the right stakeholders were brought to the table,” he added.

(FILE PHOTO: Sault Ste. Marie Chief Administrative Officer Joe Fratesi addresses stakeholders seeking to save passenger service on the ACR during a meeting April 17, 2014 at the Civic Centre. Kenneth Armstrong/SooToday.com)

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