Lac-Mégantic faces dire future with no train service
Freight trains will not run in Lac-Mégantic for months, according to federal investigators, a delay local business leaders warn will permanently damage the town.
Despite a picturesque main street once teeming with tourists, much of Lac-Mégantic’s economy is based in its expansive industrial park. On Friday, federal investigators and police ruled out the possibility that rail service would be restored to area factories before a probe into the train disaster is complete.
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“Without the train, Lac-Mégantic will die, too many jobs are linked to the rails,” said Béland Audet, the head of transportation firm Logi-Bel.
A single spur off MM&A’s main tracks leads to the vast industrial park north of the town centre. Only a few metres of that spur run through the expansive crime scene surrounding the disaster site. Business leaders, with the support of the town’s mayor, had planned to ask the Quebec provincial police to pull back the edge of its crime scene to allow trains to resume.
However, high levels of benzene contaminate the area half a kilometre from the epicentre of the derailment, according to police spokesman Benoît Richard.
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According to the local Chamber of Commerce, 1,100 of the village’s 6,000 people work in the industrial park. The local economy was not growing quickly before the disaster, but doing “alright,” according to Pascale Hallé, the chamber’s president.
Mr. Hallé said he spent Friday helping firms displaced by the fires. A number of companies have warned him that they are considering moving. Driving from business to business, Mr. Hallé said he is reminding owners that the village had a prosperous downtown.
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