A sign outside the Via Rail train station in Cornwall, Ont. (Newswatch Group/Bill Kingston, File)
CORNWALL – Cornwall’s mayor and council are concerned Via Rail’s high frequency rail project might leave the mid-sized Ontario city as an afterthought.
Via Rail spokesman Philippe Cannon presented the HFR plans to council Tuesday (May 25) to move Via Rail from owning 3 per cent of its own lines to fully operating and owning the tracks it operates on. The project is years in the making.
But councillors are concerned the plan focuses too much on the Highway 417 corridor while just increasing scheduling along the Highway 401 corridor. The proposed change would see Kingston as a hub, meaning trains would start from there instead of Toronto to service Montreal, meaning people in Cornwall could catch a train earlier in the morning. But there would be no dedicated track, according to the plan drawings.