On Sunday, the NDP MP and MP for Skeena-Bulkley Valley plans to leave the House of Commons and begin a series of rail trips that will begin in Toronto and travel more than 4,500 kilometers west to his hometown of Smithers. , BC, the end could be – about 200 km inland on the north coast of BC.

This journey may be marked by the fact that passenger trains in Canada are often derailed because they must give way to freight traveling on the same track. And that's exactly the point: Bachrach's trip is part of an effort to drum up support for a bill he introduced this week.

The Rail Priority Act calls for an amendment to the Transport of Canada Act so that whenever a passenger train and a freight train want to use the same rail line, the passenger train has priority. This would be a change from the current normal, where passenger trains such as Via Rail are leasing track time from freight companies, such as CN Rail.

This relationship creates a problem in the Bachrach constituency, a place that receives train traffic from the Port of Prince Rupert and services that it can use via Rail, Smithers and Prince Rupert. Then Prince George and Jasper can use. Bachrach: "Right now people are moving because it doesn't say they're going to get to where they are with any sense of stability."

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