PARRY SOUND – Two train stations in Parry Sound offer two very different types of services – one could be dangerous for passengers, some residents claim.
Seguin Township residents Pat and Richard Poole frequently travel by train and have done so for a number of years. However, the couple has noticed a huge discrepancy between the services at Parry Sound’s CP station on Avenue Road and CN Station on Church Street.
On Tuesday evening Poole appealed to council to look into opening the CP station for passengers so they can wait for the train in a warm, lit facility with access to a pay phone and washrooms.
Up until December 2008, Poole said, the train at the CP station arrived at 1 p.m., three times a week and passengers boarded the train with help from a local attendant.
Since then, the schedule and services have drastically changed, Poole said.
“The VIA schedule has changed and the westbound Canadian now comes through at the CP station at 2:40 a.m. three times a week. Not a great time, but schedules change,” said Poole Tuesday. “The problem now, and the one I am addressing here, there is now no attendant, the station is not open, hence there is no washroom available and there’s not even a phone at the CP station. This is an unacceptable situation, fraught with security and safety issues.”
In January 2008 the Pooles boarded the Canadian at the CP station on Avenue Road at 4:20 a.m. after it was an hour and 40 minutes late arriving from Toronto.
“The temperature was (minus) 22 degrees (Celsius). Fortunately our friends had driven us into the station and so we sat in his car for that period of time,” she said. “A young woman got out of a cab at the station at 2:30 (a.m.) waiting for the train, lucky for her our friend’s car was there, otherwise she would have waited alone, at the unopened station, cold and vulnerable.”
The following year, January 2009, the Pooles were again traveling by train and planned to drive themselves to the station and leave their car overnight, having their son pick it up the following morning.
“However the signs at the station (CP station) clearly say, no overnight parking so I called the town office for permission to do with,” said Poole. “It was denied to me by Tammy Purdy (the town’s head bylaw officer) saying there is no overnight parking on town property.”
So the couple took a cab to the station, waited nearly an hour in minus 15 degree Celsius weather, where the situation became dangerous.
“Finally we saw a light moving across the trestle, we opened the gate (on to the tracks) ourselves and moved our luggage on to the platform and suddenly realized, too late, that it was a freight train that thundered by us,” said Poole. “It was a terrifying experience. I literally held on to the chain link fence and didn’t move until it had gone. Imagine if I’d had a child with me or an unsteady older person. It was a very, very dangerous situation.
It shouldn’t be happening this way. I believe you, as town council should be very concerned about this situation. We should be encouraging and supporting train travel. One of the most environmentally-friendly ways of travel by ensuring a safe and secure point of departure or point of arrival.”
Poole offered council suggestions to rectify the situation that included, with special permission from the town, allowing passengers to leave their vehicles parked at the station overnight; a timer on the door at the Avenue Road station; and/or arrange for an attendant to be at the station prior to arrival/departure times to open the station for passengers.
“I realize that the offices in the (Avenue Road) station and the display area would have to be secured in some way, but surely that could be done with some moderate renovations,” she said. “This is the very situation that presently exists at the CN station on Church Street. There is a heated waiting room, washroom open by a timer on the door locks and a pay phone. The southbound trains also arrive at night – 5 a.m. – not much different from the 2:40 a.m. northbound train. It doesn’t make much sense for the two stations to offer such different levels of service in the same town.”
Wednesday afternoon town CAO Rob Mens said Poole’s suggestions have been received and will be sent to staff to write up a recommendation to bring to council at a future meeting.