Return of the Rail Diesel Cars to the North Main Line

RDC London Ontaio - Walter Pfefferle

This article has nothing to do with high speed rail but bringing back Rail Diesel Cars to Sarnia would enhance connections between high speed rail and smaller centres.

Back in 1996, when Terry Ivany was head of VIA Rail,  I was part of a group that had PROPOSED using Rail Diesel Cars (RDCs) on the North Main Line(NML). The NML is the rail line  that runs through St. Mary's, Stratford. Kitchener, Guelph into Toronto. Nothing happened with that proposal.

RDC - Toronto 1996 - Paul Langan

Then in 2010 money was actually set aside by the federal government to rebuild RDCs to run on the line. However as you can read HERE it never happened.

Fast forward to today and expert Rail Photographer Walter Pfefferle captured the above photograph of the RDCs in London Ontario. It may have taken 20 years but VIA Rail is starting to listen to the public.

The stumbling block to implementing the RDCs running from Sarnia could be CN Rail. Time will tell if CN becomes a partner in the rebirth of passenger rail in Southwestern Ontario.