A prominent Canadian rail consultant said the case for upgrading the line to Churchill and its port must rely more on the social good than economics..Last month, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith invited her counterparts in Regina and Winnipeg to meet in Churchill to discuss common issues and greater use of the port. Smith said the line could help meet increased food and energy needs in Europe..Greg Gormick, a rail consultant from the Toronto area, remains skeptical..“As soon as you say Churchill I go, 'Oh, a nightmare,'” Gormick said in an interview with Western Standard..“The track heaves, the tundra freezes, and then it thaws and it heaves. The track is a nightmare to maintain. It is, in a sense, a very large sinkhole.”.Gormick first worked in rail in the 1970s and consults today with On Track Strategies. He believes Smith’s proposal is a “western fantasy” dependent on a rail line that is “forever going to freeze and heave” and be costly to maintain..“I love it, now we've got right wingers who deny global warming who are saying, ‘Oh, with global warming, there'll be a longer shipping season.’ That's called attempting to suck and blow at the same time. Not to poo-poo the whole thing, because it does have some utility, but doesn't it strike you as a slight fantasy that we're going to turn Churchill into this global port?”.A federal charter was granted for a railway from Winnipeg to Hudson Bay in 1880, but it didn’t reach The Pas, MB until 1908. Only in 1929 did the line finally get to Churchill, with the port opening two years later. The port began a two-year shutdown in November 2021 while the rail line leading to it undergoes repairs..“This has not been one of the roaring engineering successes of Canada. The railway is the lifeline. And it's an expensive lifeline. And the question you have to ask is, is it really worth it? If it's for social reasons, then good luck to them, but just have deep pockets,” Gormick said..“They're going to have to prime this pump with a lot of cash before there's any prospect of it being commercial. And where is their business plan? It's nice for [Smith] to say, ‘Oh, let's all rally around and separate from Canada and show those Eastern bastards while they're freezing in the dark just what we can do. So, where’s she gonna get the money?”.To some extent, the question has already been answered. Earlier this year, the Manitoba and Canadian governments pledged to invest $147 million to upgrade and maintain the railway. But Gormick would rather see investments elsewhere..“You could build a hell of a lot of second main track on CN's overloaded Western Transcontinental Main Line or new equipment for daytime intercity passenger service on various prairie routes with the kind of money our governments keep shoveling into the Hudson Bay gravy train's firebox,” Gormick said. .“Nothing against the folks who'd like to see Churchill thrive, but we live in straightened times. Where would the money do the most good? It would do the most good by working through the main ports and the railway mainlines to improve them. And if you want to do Churchill as a stop gap, a safety valve, public policy, social responsibility, OK, that's fine. Just know you'd better have deep pockets.”.Although governments have multi-billion dollar budgets each year, Gormick does not believe they always consider things practically..“I want to find this orchard with all these money trees with the dollar bills just hanging off of them. When I see all these goddamned politically-motivated programs, I see the bills,” Gormick said..“I don't want to be negative. I'm not saying shut the railway down. But I'm looking at it in the context of cost-benefit analysis in that, is the benefit going to equal the cost here? And the cost is going to be high. That's a decision for the politicians to make — God help us.”
A prominent Canadian rail consultant said the case for upgrading the line to Churchill and its port must rely more on the social good than economics..Last month, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith invited her counterparts in Regina and Winnipeg to meet in Churchill to discuss common issues and greater use of the port. Smith said the line could help meet increased food and energy needs in Europe..Greg Gormick, a rail consultant from the Toronto area, remains skeptical..“As soon as you say Churchill I go, 'Oh, a nightmare,'” Gormick said in an interview with Western Standard..“The track heaves, the tundra freezes, and then it thaws and it heaves. The track is a nightmare to maintain. It is, in a sense, a very large sinkhole.”.Gormick first worked in rail in the 1970s and consults today with On Track Strategies. He believes Smith’s proposal is a “western fantasy” dependent on a rail line that is “forever going to freeze and heave” and be costly to maintain..“I love it, now we've got right wingers who deny global warming who are saying, ‘Oh, with global warming, there'll be a longer shipping season.’ That's called attempting to suck and blow at the same time. Not to poo-poo the whole thing, because it does have some utility, but doesn't it strike you as a slight fantasy that we're going to turn Churchill into this global port?”.A federal charter was granted for a railway from Winnipeg to Hudson Bay in 1880, but it didn’t reach The Pas, MB until 1908. Only in 1929 did the line finally get to Churchill, with the port opening two years later. The port began a two-year shutdown in November 2021 while the rail line leading to it undergoes repairs..“This has not been one of the roaring engineering successes of Canada. The railway is the lifeline. And it's an expensive lifeline. And the question you have to ask is, is it really worth it? If it's for social reasons, then good luck to them, but just have deep pockets,” Gormick said..“They're going to have to prime this pump with a lot of cash before there's any prospect of it being commercial. And where is their business plan? It's nice for [Smith] to say, ‘Oh, let's all rally around and separate from Canada and show those Eastern bastards while they're freezing in the dark just what we can do. So, where’s she gonna get the money?”.To some extent, the question has already been answered. Earlier this year, the Manitoba and Canadian governments pledged to invest $147 million to upgrade and maintain the railway. But Gormick would rather see investments elsewhere..“You could build a hell of a lot of second main track on CN's overloaded Western Transcontinental Main Line or new equipment for daytime intercity passenger service on various prairie routes with the kind of money our governments keep shoveling into the Hudson Bay gravy train's firebox,” Gormick said. .“Nothing against the folks who'd like to see Churchill thrive, but we live in straightened times. Where would the money do the most good? It would do the most good by working through the main ports and the railway mainlines to improve them. And if you want to do Churchill as a stop gap, a safety valve, public policy, social responsibility, OK, that's fine. Just know you'd better have deep pockets.”.Although governments have multi-billion dollar budgets each year, Gormick does not believe they always consider things practically..“I want to find this orchard with all these money trees with the dollar bills just hanging off of them. When I see all these goddamned politically-motivated programs, I see the bills,” Gormick said..“I don't want to be negative. I'm not saying shut the railway down. But I'm looking at it in the context of cost-benefit analysis in that, is the benefit going to equal the cost here? And the cost is going to be high. That's a decision for the politicians to make — God help us.”
