(Ottawa) Federal Transport Minister Omar Alghabra announced that an agreement in principle was reached on Wednesday between the Government of Canada and the City of Lac-Mégantic for the acquisition of parcels of land belonging to the City. These plots are required for the construction of the Lac-Mégantic bypass, he said in a press release issued in the evening.
Posted yesterday at 11:05 p.m.
“With this agreement in principle, we have taken a new step towards the realization of this railway bypass which will ensure that the current railway line will definitively leave downtown Lac-Mégantic. We will continue the required process over the next few months in order to finalize the purchase of the plots of land,” said Minister Alghabra.
Nine years ago, on July 6, 2013 to be precise, 47 people lost their lives in the worst rail tragedy in Canadian history. A train filled with crude oil had just rolled down a slope upstream from the municipality before derailing in the heart of downtown Lac-Mégantic, triggering explosions and a huge fire that killed 47 people and disfigured the center of the city.
Since then, the community and successive municipal governments have been calling for a rail bypass to prevent such a tragedy from happening again.