Customer service on the rails

To say that Canadian railway operators are reluctant to accept realities of modern life is an understatement:

With plans for the 25th Street extension now approved, the major question turns to if or when the railways will abandon some of their downtown lines for new routes on the periphery of the city.

But Canadian Pacific Railway dug in its heels Tuesday, saying it has no plans to leave downtown. Doing so would significantly disrupt its business in the city, a spokesperson said.

“We have no desire or intention to relocate,” Breanne Feigel said in an interview.

As usual with anything worth noting that’s published in the StarPhoenix, here my requisite letter to the editor:

Re: Railway reluctant to leave downtown, March 18

The national railway companies must think of Saskatoon residents as a cackle of ignorant prairie rubes. Otherwise, why else would they be so dismissive of plans to develop and reinvigorate the city’s north downtown on the grounds that it would “disrupt its business in the city.” Know what else disrupts business in this city? A freight train that crawls through major transportation corridors during rush hour.

Time has come for the rail companies to recognize Saskatoon as the province’s major urban hub and centre of economic activity. Moving the tracks outside the city core is not a matter of “if” but of “when”. The sooner the rail companies can agree with this sentiment, the sooner Sasktoon’s economic and transporation strategies can enter the 21st century.

Damn, I’m witty.

But come on: why the hell haven’t the major rail companies — who obviously are waiting for the re-emergence of passenger rail as a viable transportation alternative — done anything to divert or mitigate disruption of traffic during, you know, the past century? And where was the city or federal government on this?

It’s tough to take a city seriously when you’re waiting at the train tracks every couple of weeks. Boo-urns.