Wednesday, December 08, 2010

New Brunswick Recreational Rail Riders in Jeopardy


I received word this morning that the province has told the New Brunswick Recreational Rail Riders (NBRRR) that their lease on the 9 miles of railroad track between Nackawic and Millville will be cancelled effective December 29, 2010.

For those who don't know, the NBRRR are a group of people who operate track speeders over the former CP Southampton Subdivision between Nackawic and Millville in New Brunswick. Read about the New Brunswick Recreational Rail Riders. They have maintained the track since their inception and have never asked for any government handouts. They enjoy their hobby and would like to continue to do so. Without this track they will have nowhere in New Brunswick to run their speeders.

The Minister of Natural Resources, the Honourable Bruce Northrup, wrote that the reason for canceling the lease was to allow multi-purpose use of the trail. Presumably the rails will be lifted and the roadbed converted to trail, as so much of the province's rail system has become.

It should be pointed out that the New Brunswick Trail passes by Nackawic on the south side of the Saint John River, and this "multi-purpose trail" would not connect to any existing trail.

There are rumours that a local contractor has been waiting for a government contract to lift the rails. I don't know if this is true or not.

This is the last significant piece of publicly owned track in New Brunswick. The land it is on is not valuable and the new trail that would be created would not connect to any existing trail.

Please speak out. You can contact the Minister, Bruce Northrup, at bruce.northrup@gnb.ca. The Premier, David Alward, can be contacted at david.alward@gnb.ca.

Please help keep this piece of New Brunswick railway history alive.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hi ,yes i listened to an interesting conversation on CBC with Terry Seguin and Mr Northrup about the Railline from Pinder to Lower Southampton ,used by the NBRRR Speeders club ,Its appears that Mr Northrup pulled a Boob ,with no information on what the value of the rail and ties is to what its going to cost to change ot over to a trail .I honestly think that they should leave it alone ,there are others that will stand by the rail club .Gary Scott Railfan