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rfmcdonaldThe Toronto Star today carried Tess Kalinowski's article chronicling the contribution made by Canadian singer-songwriter Emm Gryner to the campaign to restore passenger train service to the small southwestern Ontario town of St. Mary.
The problem with the campaign, as noted in the article's comments and elsewhere, is that there really is very little passenger traffic on a daily basis to and from St. Mary's. The town is home to six thousand people, and the number of people regularly commuting into Toronto on the Via passenger service is suggested as being quite low. The once-daily service sounds like as much as can reasonably be hoped for.
The problem with the campaign, as noted in the article's comments and elsewhere, is that there really is very little passenger traffic on a daily basis to and from St. Mary's. The town is home to six thousand people, and the number of people regularly commuting into Toronto on the Via passenger service is suggested as being quite low. The once-daily service sounds like as much as can reasonably be hoped for.
Trains to many southwestern Ontario locations were cut last year in what Via called “right-sizing” of its service. But communities who depended on passenger trains say they haven’t given up on having those trips restored.
Gryner has lent her voice and her video from an upcoming album called Music for Scholars to the fight that continues months after cuts to Stratford, Sarnia and Niagara service as well as some national Via runs.
[. . .]
“The St. Marys rail station is very picturesque. So are those tracks and the huge train bridge. It’s something I really love, living in a town with the train. I thought of the video as writing a letter to these trains, as though they are lost loves,” she said.
Gryner, 37, who moved to St. Marys from Montreal about 10 years ago, lives with her partner and children, ages 3 and 9 months. She travels regularly to Toronto to work and perform, and she likes to take the kids with her since the performances occupy a brief interval in many of those trips.
[. . .]
“Before they cut the trains, there were two morning trains and two in the evening coming back. To be honest, it’s a huge selling point of why we moved here, to have that convenience,” she said.
“Everyone’s pretty much afraid they’re just going to phase it right out,” said Gryner.
The remaining train trip doesn’t leave until after 8 a.m. and arrives in Toronto too late for early morning meetings, she said.
The return trip doesn’t leave Toronto until 8:36 p.m.
