http://www.frontenacnews.ca/central-...ncil-sep-13-16
VIA Rail wants to build a service along Highway 7
At the start of the Central Frontenac Council meeting this week (Tuesday September 13), Mayor Frances Smith presented a document she has received from Jacques Fauteux, Director, government and community relations with VIA rail.
The VIA Dedicated Tracks project proposes to use a new, more efficient diesel-electric hybrid fleet to deliver passenger service in the Quebec City to Windsor corridor.
An adjunct to that project, according to the document, “includes the Shining Waterways Railway Plan, which aims to provide passenger service from Toronto to Havelock, and its extension all the way to Ottawa, using existing tracks or discontinued railway rights of way.”
The service would have many benefits including: local train service to Toronto and Ottawa, shorter trip times than using a car, regional economic development, etc.
Basic inspections are to take place on former railway beds and infrastructure that are under consideration for the project in the region over the coming weeks.
The former rail line from Havelock to Ottawa is currently part of the Trans-Canada Trail. It follows Highway 7 as it heads from Kaladar to Ottawa, but in Central Frontenac it pushes to the south of the highway at Elm Tree, passes below Big Clear Lake in Arden and over to Mountain Grove, eventually following the southern shore of the west basin of Sharbot Lake at Brewer Road, before passing through the hamlet at the medical center, past the beach and then the township office.
Until last year it then went under a bridge at Road 38, but that bridge was removed last year and the trail now passes over the road as it heads back towards Fall River Road, where it again follows Highway 7 towards Perth.