More cooperation needed to improve rail travel to, from and within Canada

Among the outcomes of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s official visit to Washington and meetings with President Obama last week is an announcement that pilot programs will begin to allow for travelers — going by car, bus or train — to be pre-screened by both countries’ border control agents before actually reaching the border. Airline passengers already clear US Customs and Border Protection screening at several Canadian airports before entering the US, and US immigration checks for southbound Amtrak Cascades passengers are completed at Vancouver, BC’s Pacific Central Station. The announcement particularly raises hopes that US border pre-clearance will be implemented at Montreal’s Central Station for the southbound Adirondack, which would also help progress towards extending the Vermonter to Montreal.

While this is notable progress, and great news for Adirondack and future Vermonter passengers, much remains to be done to make crossing the US-Canadian border more fluid. The possibilities for trans-border passenger rail and connecting bus services would be greatly opened up if border checks could be handled more like they are in Europe. Most Western European countries are members of the Schengen Area, within which there are no border checks between member countries except in emergencies, in which case each member country has the right to institute temporary border checks. 

The Schengen countries have a longer and more recent history of friction and animosity than the US and Canada, whose relationship is among the most amicable between nations in the world. The vast majority of our mutual border — the world’s longest land border between the same two countries — is not even guarded. It eludes me why Canada and the US cannot simply enter into an agreement similar to Schengen. But until the political climate in both countries makes that possible, further bilateral cooperation should make possible innovations such as the ability for both countries’ border agents to carry out inspections on board moving trains on either side of the border.

Among the many opportunities more fluid border crossings for rail and bus passengers, and an expanded train network in both countries, would open up is the ability for Americans to vacation in remote parts of Canada that are only easily accessible by train. One such region is that served by the Algoma Central Railway, which runs due north from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario (just across the St. Mary’s River from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and connected to Michigan and Wisconsin via a currently freight-only rail bridge, as well as a two-lane highway bridge) through the rugged Canadian Shield, terminating at Hearst. Owners of cabins and lodges along the line depended on the year-round passenger trains that used to operate along the line, stopping upon request at various wilderness mileposts, for their livelihoods. However, the Algoma Central’s passenger service has not run since June 2015 (a fact that affected me personally amid a northern Ontario rail adventure) amid a standoff between track owner Canadian National, the Canadian government, and a coalition of local governmental, business and tribal stakeholders. 

Given the overwhelming desire of communities served by the Algoma Central to see passenger service return, and the Canadian government’s commitment to providing operating subsidies for at least three years (as of mid-2015), the ongoing inability to reach a mutually agreeable path towards restoring the service baffles me. CN’s desire to rid themselves of the operational responsibility for passenger trains, which their crews operated until last June, is somewhat understandable. But CN has not certified any of the other companies that have formally expressed interest in operating the trains — except for one.

Reports are that three Canadian companies, whose names have not been released, have submitted proposals to operate the passenger train. But only one potential operator has ever received CN’s blessing: Railmark Canada Ltd., a Canadian subsidiary of a small American railroad holding company, Railmark Holdings Inc. Various start-up operational challenges and financial problems caused the local stakeholders group — to which CN granted the power to contract with a substitute operator — to end its contract with Railmark. Now, Railmark insists it is the only option the group has, other than to continue to live without passenger service.

Michigan-based Railmark provides switching, railcar repair and maintenance of way services to several US short lines. Its founder and CEO, Allen Brown, is an affable guy who has the best of intentions and has been very friendly to me personally. But his failure to keep promises made regarding Algoma Central, and Railmark’s abysmal record with its previous forays into passenger operations — all very short-distance dinner trains in the US Midwest — have led to a widespread lack of trust amongst his peers in the rail industry and among many in Algoma Country. 

I’m not ready to rule out the possibility that Railmark will rebound from its struggles and begin to implement its vision of turning what Brown dubbed the “Algoma Spirit Passenger Train” into a real gem. But I’m not holding my breath for it, and I’ll be looking to the stakeholders’ group, CN and Transport Canada to continue to cooperate and expediently find a workable course forward.