Ring of Fire is Test Case on Gov’t Rail Policy – Mining Life
Trains or trucks? That is the burning question in the debate over the Ring of Fire’s transportation options.
In a bygone era, the overwhelming choice would have been rail. As generations of Canadian schoolchildren once learned, it was the railways that opened up Northern Ontario and most of the country, economically and socially. Even in the subsequent era when rail lost its monopoly, trains remained the winners when it came to serving large, long-term resource developments. The construction of the CP and CN branch lines to Manitouwadge’s copper mines in the 1950s is a prime example.
But trains haven’t fared well in these competitions in Canada in recent years, even as they are growing in importance in other developed and developing nations.
Consequently, many rail proponents regard the Ring of Fire’s modal choice as a litmus test for the direction of federal and provincial transportation policies. Will rail solutions once again be part of the Canadian planning and decision-making processes
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