Churchill, Manitoba is a railway town once again

In 2017, spring flooding severely damaged the Hudson Bay Rail Line, Churchill’s only land link to the rest of Canada. Since then, people and freight could only access Churchill via air and sea. Prices on everything from fuel to groceries skyrocketed. Tourism declined. It stranded local families, students, and business owners and yet there were those who didn’t lose hope while others scurried away.

While others did the work, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took the credit when he announced last week that by the end of November, the rail line will resume its operations, servicing both passengers and freight.

My friend Joe the Shipper Stover, now air traffic control assistant lay awake last Wednesday evening – first he heard one train whistle, thinking this cannot be. Then Joe heard the second and ran outside to capture on video the arrival of the first train since the spring of 2016. I asked last Thursday after Trudeau made the announcement and after seeing the first train come in, what is your gut feeling, where are we going with this?

“Today was one of the first days of kind of a new beginning for the Town of Churchill, the port and the railway. Last night I was hanging out at home with the trick or treaters, and I heard the toot of a train whistle. I thought, “Well, I shouldn’t hear that,” because we haven’t had a train in so long, but sure enough, heard another toot, and got in my truck and raced down to the train station,” he said excitedly. “And, sure enough, there was the first train that we’ve had in over 17 months. It’s just a darn good feeling to know that basically, we’re a railway town again, and we’re going to be a port town still. And, having the Prime Minister here today was just a huge deal, with the community. It was terrific to have people here acknowledging that we are indeed back on the scene, as it were.

Next, I asked whether he knew the train was coming.

“I was not sure. Some people said that it was going to come today, or it was going to happen Saturday. I was not confident to the point where I wasn’t expecting it to come. I knew it was going to go at some point, but I just wasn’t ready for it.

What a surprise it was to hear the whistle of the train, and so that was … To have that back up here again is just fantastic. It’s huge.” So when you look at the Town of Churchill, and apparently some people have probably already given up, and others are waiting, there are those that are saying, “Oh, we’re going to make it happen.”

So, how do you feel the attitude is?

“Well, I think at least in town here, people are extremely optimistic. We’ve had the man in charge of the Arctic Gateway tell us pretty much flat-out, that he’s no miracle worker or anything like that. But I mean, there’s a reason that they invested in this port, and with their network of grain, and having their cars and things like that, there’s just no reason to think otherwise. The new group I’m sure wants to prove that this asset works, and that they are going to ship a bunch of grain through here next year is the hope. And, that’s what a lot of people around here are thinking, and banking on,” said Joe, the Shipper. And, the hope is that once we can again because Churchill always has to prove itself, once we can prove yet again, that we are a competent grain-handling facility, strategically placed for the prairie farmers, I think everybody will get on board with that too. Not just for grain shipping, but for shipping goods through here, and from the prairies up to the Nunavut communities as well. So I think once we have a year or two under our belts, showcasing what Churchill can do, and showing that it is a financially responsible choice, I think that only good things will follow.” •