The Coalition for Algoma Passenger Trains (CAPT) announces All Aboard! To save ACR Passenger Train. This is a series of 3 Town Hall Meetings/ Media Events with a train trip on the ACR between the Wawa and Hearst meetings.
Guest speaker, Harry Gow, transportation expert and founding president of Transport Action Canada, will be able to enlighten us about efforts elsewhere in the country to stop rail cuts.
The three meeting event will take place as follows:
- Sault Ste. Marie Town Hall Meeting: Wed. Feb. 19, 2014 at 7:30 pm in the Civic Centre
- Wawa Town Hall Meeting: Thurs. Feb. 20 at 10:00 am in the Michipicoten Memorial Community Centre
- Hearst Town Hall Meeting: Thurs. Feb. 20 at 8:00 pm in the Companion Hotel
Following the Sault Ste. Marie meeting, the next morning (Thursday) the guest speaker and CAPT supporters will drive to Wawa. Following the Wawa meeting a delegation will have lunch at the Big Bear Restaurant in Hawk Junction and board the train to Hearst for the 8:00 pm meeting there. On the morning of Friday, Feb. 21 the delegation will return by train. All are invited to join us for any of the meetings and for the train trips on the 20th and 21st. We extend a particular invitation to the media to be present for this series of meetings and train trips.
The town hall meetings will provide an opportunity for the public to express their concerns about the devastating effects that the announced termination of the ACR passenger train service will have on the region’s tourism, on local businesses, on population retention, on the future of transportation in our region, on the environment, on people’s access to regional health care and postsecondary institutions to name only a few.
All Aboard! To save the ACR Passenger Train provides a perfect opportunity for the media to hear the full extent of the impacts that this decision will have on our region and to hear the evidence that the decision was made with clearly false information about supposed alternative transportation to the areas serviced by the ACR.
For further information please contact:
Linda Savory Gordon 705 943 0971 linda.savory-gordon@algomau.ca
Al Errington 705 946 2010 al@wildernessisland.com
Marie Price 705 736 2365 cora-marieprice@gmail.com
Lori Johnson (Wawa) 705 856 2244 ext 2241 ljohnson@wawa.cc
Sylvie Fontaine (Hearst) 705 372 2837 sfontaine@hearst.ca
The Canadian government has decided to cut it’s passenger service subsidy to Canadian National Railway (CN) for the section between Sault Ste. Marie and Hearst known as the Algoma Central Railway(ACR.) As a result CN will no longer run the passenger train along this historical and economic route beginning April 29, 2014.
Troy, Michigan, has been chosen for an $8.4 million federal grant that will fund 100% of a new Multi-Modal Transportation Facility. On December 19th, the City Council will vote on whether to keep or reject these funds.