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Town hoping to 'piggyback' county on environmental assessment for old railway cleanup

Collingwood resident alerted town to potentially hazardous rail ties on town-owned lands
2019-18-15 BCRW JO-001
A portion of the Barrie-Collingwood Railway in Angus is mostly overgrown. Jessica Owen/CollingwoodToday

The Town of Collingwood is hoping to join the County of Simcoe’s work to clean up old rail ties and steel from the region’s former railways. 

There are about 1,000 metres of abandoned rail lines on town-owned property. Recently, a Collingwood resident raised concerns about the potential environmental hazard the old rail ties could present. 

Lyndsay Lyall, a long-time Collingwood Trails volunteer, suggested the town and county should work to clean up the old rail lines and convert the land into more trails. 

Collingwood’s director of parks, recreation, and culture, Dean Collver, said the old railway lands haven’t been earmarked for any particular project, but Lyall’s suggestions have prompted the town to look into what will be required to clean up the old rail line. In particular, the creosote-treated rail ties.

“We weren’t really observing this as a project until it was brought to our attention the potential of environmental impact,” said Collver. “We’re looking into this because we want to be responsible. We try to be responsible.” 

The project will not be inexpensive, added Collver. 

Firstly, while the steel has value as scrap metal, the return on investment goes down based on the difficulty of extracting the old rails. 

There’s no clear path for machines to access all 1,000 km of the old rails. 

Secondly, creosote is a hazardous material, requiring special means for disposal and finding a depot that will accept the material. 

“The last time we went down this path, the quotes we got were significant,” said Collver. 

In another area (along Siding Trail and River Trail) the town was able to find someone willing to remove the steel provided they could keep all the scrap they salvaged. 

But where access became difficult, removal became cost-prohibitive for the contractor. 

The County of Simcoe owns the Barrie-Collingwood Railway, much of which has been abandoned and overgown. 

There are 32 kilometres of trail between Collingwood and Angus earmarked for a multi-use pedestrian trail. 

Along that stretch, the county faces the same issue as Collingwood. The old rail ties and steel rails need to be cleaned up. 

The county will soon be looking for a contractor to conduct an environmental assessment for the trail lands, and Collver said he’s hoping the town can "piggyback" on the effort. 

“The county lands are separate from ours … but they’re doing a similar thing,” said Collver. “We could join that effort for efficiency.” 

Collver said an environmental assessment of the old rail lands will help staff build knowledge around the issue and be able to come up with a cost estimate for council to consider in the 2022 budget. 

“We’re tying to establish how we go about this,” said Collver. “Our number one priority is public safety.” 

Though clean up will likely be a costly venture, Collver said he’s glad Lyall pointed out the issue. 

“We’re always happy to learn and become more aware of hazards or problems identified in the community,” said Collver. “I think we have some capacity issues when it comes to workloads. So any sense of hesitation is really only about ‘how do we fit it in?'”

You can read more about the county’s plans for the Barrie-Collingwood rail trail here.

- With files from Jessica Owen


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Erika Engel

About the Author: Erika Engel

Erika regularly covers all things news in Collingwood as a reporter and editor. She has 15 years of experience as a local journalist
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