Canadian Railroads > Speaking of Amherst, NS

After bemoaning the fact that Amherst's train station had been closed to the public for several years, with no resolution in sight (see thread below), I stumbled across this news item today.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/via-rail-train-station-railway-amherst-town-council-pizza-owner-1.5017539?cmp=rss

Perhaps VIA, the town, Parks Canada and the pizza shop owner have finally dotted all the Is and crossed the Ts.  I'm looking forward to enjoying some pizza after a day of chasing trains in northern Nova Scotia and the Moncton area of New Brunswick.

As an aside, the reporter whose byline is on this story had a previous career as a VIA On Board Service Manager before he joined CBC as one of my colleagues.

GTD



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/13/19 12:05 by cn6218.

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That is very good news. It is a shame that passengers have had nowhere to wait since it was closed. About 10 or 12 years ago I went to Amherst with friends. Before the service cuts in 2012 you could make a same-day return to Montreal. The friendly station agent held our luggage in the office so we could wander around the town and have lunch.

I wonder if the CBC's "Jean" is the ex-SM who used to work on the Chaleur and some corridor trains.

I don't know about the Chaleur and Corridor trains, but I do know he was working on the Ocean in the winter of 1989-90 when it froze up (still had steam heat) in Amqui.  He had to visit the local grocery stores and buy up all the loaves of bread and other supplies he could find so the diner crew could feed everybody.  I was on my way back to Halifax from Montreal when that happened, but we took the Atlantic.  We were late leaving Montreal and the train ran more slowly than usual because of wind chill effects.  When we finally arrived in Brownville Jct., ME the water truck that was there to meet us had frozen.  We had another delay while the driver went to get another truck load of water so the steam generators could be replenished.  The steam heat worked though.  I don't remember being uncomfortable despite the -20 or 30 C temperatures.

I suspect Jean got caught up in the 1990 cuts, and pursued a career in journalism instead. 

GTD

Thanks for sharing this.

The article isn't clear on the reason for the original closure - can you shed some light on that?

The station closure (along with neighbouring Sackville, NB) happened at the same time as the Ocean was cut from 6 to 3 days a week.  I assume it was just a cost saving move.  There were already several flag stops in New Brunswick (Rogersville, Petit Rocher, Jacquet River) that had stations but no staff, so it's not entirely unprecedented.  Oddly though, Amherst and Sackville are not listed as flag stops on the current timetable.  I'm not sure about the other NB stations, but Petit Rocher's is not even owned by VIA.  It was built by the municipality.

GTD