Lac-Megantic mayor wants railway tracks re-located outside of town

MONTREAL – The mayor of Lac-Megantic, Quebec said that she wants the railway tracks running through her town to be re-located outside the community.

A town official said Colette Roy-Laroche made that clear to the company that won the bid for Montreal, Maine and Atlantic, the insolvent railway at the centre of last July’s fiery disaster that killed 47 people.

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The official said Fortress Investment Group, the potential new owners, didn’t say no and didn’t say yes to the mayor’s demand.

Train service in Lac-Megantic, where some of the region’s biggest employers depend on the railroad, restarted in December and the MM&A agreed not to transport dangerous goods through the town.

READ MORE: Another MM&A train accident waiting to happen

Last month, Fortress subsidiary Railroad Acquisition Holdings secured a winning bid for the bankrupt MM&A, which operates about 770 kilometres of track in Maine, Vermont and Quebec.

The Lac-Megantic official said Fortress consultant John Giles told Roy-Laroche he was in an information-gathering phase because the company was still unsure whether it wanted to go through with the MM&A  purchase.