Planning begins to move rail lines out of Winnipeg

Aworking group is set to startas early as next month to plan to move rail lines out of the city of Winnipeg.

The group, which will include Canadian Pacific Railway and Canadian Nationalofficials,will put together a detailed study to submit to federal officials, as is required under federal transport laws.

A couple of the shorter lines, such as one in River Heights, will have a shorter timeline, a provincial government official said.

Ultimately the plan is to work towards moving CP's massive yards out of centralWinnipeg. Those yards, just north of Higgins Avenue, have been the subject of relocation talks for many years.

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A possible new location isCentrePort, northwest of Winnipeg's James Richardson International Airport,an 8,000-hectare inlanddistribution and warehousing depot thatlinksair, ground and rail transport.

However, that option is still justspeculation. No firm discussions have taken place, according toCentrePortspokeswomanRivaHarrison.

CentrePortisbuilding what is known as a common-use rail facility, toallow for multiple rail lines (CN, CP,BNSF) to serve businesses in the area, but "our project is a stand-alone, separate initiative that is about increasing rail-serviced industrial space and attracting new companies to theCentrePortarea," Harrison said.

"It isnotconnected to the broader conversation/study around rail relocation."

A line that 'stigmatizes'

Gunn's Bakery has been operating in the North End since 1937. Arthur Gunn, the owner of the Selkirk Avenuebakery, said hethinks the plan to move the rail yards is a good ideathat's been a long time coming.

"The rail yards havealways been a demarcation between north and southit's always stigmatized the people who have lived in the North End, the north side of the tracks," Gunn said."It's always made them feel like the poor cousins of whatever else goes on on the other side of the tracks."

Gunn added that if the rail yards were no longer taking up so much space in the core of the city, all that land could beconverted into housing, parks and restaurants. That, he said, would provide services to residents that they currently may not have access to and could eradicate some of the differences between who lives on eitherside of the tracks.

"Once the tracks are gone, it's like the whole thing is level, there's no separation."