Taxpayers win! CP Rail ordered to pay for Cambridge overpass
Published: August 26th 2009
Source: By Jeff Outhit, Record staff

CAMBRIDGE — Politicians are celebrating a federal ruling that compels CP Rail to pay for most of an overpass to solve a traffic headache on Hespeler Road.

CP Rail may now have to put up to $29 million into separating the road from the tracks. Regional taxpayers may be on the hook for as little as $3.5 million.

“That’s great news for all taxpayers in the region,” Cambridge Mayor Doug Craig said.

“It’s removed all the final obstacles to the bridge going ahead.”

“We’re disappointed with the ruling,” said Michel Spenard, spokesperson for CP Rail. But the railway is not appealing the cost order by the Canadian Transportation Agency. “We’ll abide,” he said.

The at-grade crossing near Water and Dundas streets is a notorious headache. Traffic frequently backs up while trains shunt back and forth, an average of 26 times a day, mostly to serve the Cambridge Toyota factory.

Construction on the long-anticipated and much-delayed overpass may launch in the fall of next year, if CP Rail moves quickly to rejoin project planning. Construction will take two years.

CP Rail withdrew from planning pending the cost ruling. Spenard could not say when the railway will rejoin the project.

The railway told the transportation agency the proposed overpass is premature and overdesigned. The firm asked that construction be put off, or that its share of basic costs be limited to 15 per cent, the least allowed.

The federal agency sided with Waterloo regional council, ordering the overpass to go ahead as designed and directing the railway to shoulder 85 per cent of basic costs, the most allowed. The railway must also shoulder all costs for special overpass features, such as extra tracks.

In their ruling, two agency members pointed out that CP Rail violates federal rules whenever it blocks Hespeler Road for longer than five minutes, which happens in one out of four crossings.

“It was nice to get a clear-cut decision,” Regional Chair Ken Seiling said. He said dealing with the railway “has not been easy in the past.”

CP Rail had at one point proposed relocating most trains outside the region, to reduce bothersome crossings. The firm later put this proposal on hold when the economy tanked.

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