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PAGE I4 TERRACE BAY NEWS JULY 4, 1974 Barrett slams rail proposal Sun Victoria Bureau VICTORIA -- Premier Dave Barrett has attacked Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Tru- deau's proposal to nationalize railway passenger service as "blatant subsidy to the CPR." The passenger service is a losing proposition, Barrett said Tuesday, adding: "Hasn't. the CPR got enough out of this country without the prime 1ninister bailing them out of the passenger service?" Barrett told reporters the provosal was incredible, that he couldn't believe it and that the CPR should be jumping for joy. When a reporter pointed out Trudeau had said this would be government policy if the © Liberals are re-elected, Bar- rett said: 'That ought to do great things for the campaign funds." As for Trudeau's suggestion that provincially-run railways would be eligible for similar -nationalization of passenger service. Barreit said it is a money-loser for the B.C. Rail- way and that the federal gov- ernment is welcome to take it over. In Vanccuver, Ald. Setty Pendakur said of the Trudeau announcement: "This is the road to disaster. "Nowhere in the history of railroads in North America is there a record of railways making money out of pas- senger service alone." Pendakur, a member of the Vancouver civic transporta- tion committee, said the fed- eral government instead should insist that the national railways use their profits from lucrative freight and land development divisions to. maintain and expand "ade- quate passenger services." "There is absolutely no ben- efit at all to Western Canada in this . kind of ridiculous move. And, that's what it is, a stupid, ridiculous move," The VANCOUVER SUN: Wed., June 19, 1974 charged Pendakur. ." He said he found it ironic ihat while provincial and mu- nicipal authorities in the Greater Vancouver area were trying to work out a basic rapid transit system, 'Mr. Trudeau is talking about run- ning a line out to Chilliwack." "Here we are, trying to work out a transit system to serve places like Langley, Delta and similar places, and somebody on cloud nine in Ot- tawa thinks up a Vancouver- Chilliwack corridor line. "This (Trudeau proposal) is a topsy-turvy scheme. While the CPR and CN get fat on freight business, the taxpayer would be saddled with the passenger train losses. "If Mr. Trudeau wanfs to nationalize the railways, why doesn't he include CP's Mara- thon Realty. too. That's where the money is," charged Pend- akur. : Vancouver Mayor Art Phil- lips was out of town Tuesday and Ald. Walter Hardwick, another member of the civic transportation committee is in Europe. A spokesman for the B.C. Railway said the Trudeau proposal "sounds like a glorified Amtirak system." "But we would have to wait for the full details of the pro- posal before making any com- ment on it." Amtrak is the operating name of the National Railroas Passenger Corporation, of Washington, D.C., which since May, 1971, has run all the pas- senger trains in the United States. A government-organized, but partially privately funded, profit - oriented organization, Amtrak took over passenger services that the private U.S. railways were abandoning and has succeeded in increasing passenger train service on many lines. : Local spokesmen for CP Rail and the CN said they too .had been advised by. tneir main offices in Eastern Cana- da that no statements would 'be made immediately in reac- tion to the Trudeau plan. "I don't see where (national railways would be unhappy, though, at the prospect of having the government take over. the losing passenger services," said a CP spokes- man. Greater Vancouver Region- al District chairman Allan Kelly lashed out at Trudeau's proposal. : "It strikes me there's some- thing insane in the way Mr. Trudeau keeps dropping these policy announce- ments," Kelly told The Van- couver Sun. "Why didn't he carry out these programs when he was in power in the last few years? If he cannot run these railways better than he ran government, then God help us;" said Kelly. Trudeau's proposal also came under fire from Vanco- uver and District Labor Coun- cil delegates. " They unanimously passed a motion calling on the govern- ment to nationalize both CP Rail's passenger and freight services. ; ' Tiny Hines of the Seafarers' International Union said the suggestion amounted to '"tak- ing '$500 million of the taxpay- ers' money and bailing the CPR out of its passenger train service." "Canadian Pacific has never fulfilled its obligation to the Canadian people in spite of being granted land and mineral rights clear across the country," said Hines. The foregoing article was submitted by Mr. W.A. Mullins of Schreiber. Mr. Mullins would also like to make the following statement: "The railroad people should not forget how the liberal party voted against them getting more than 30¢ while the conservative motion was for 34¢ and the N.D.P. motion was for 36¢. On September 2nd, I973, there were 98 liber -als in the house and the whole 98 voted against the conservative and N.D.P. motion; then when Judge Hall ruled on this he gave the railroader more than the 36¢ and called it "Catch Up Pay". - W.A. Mullins, Schreiber. Mrs. Teresa Kent of London is visiting her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Arthur LeBlanc, Mr. and Mrs. Allan Gilmour and Mr. and Mrs. Paul Ce- brario. Mr. and Mrs. Dave McKay of Sioux Lookout are visiting Mr. and Mrs. Norman McCuaig and Mr. and Mrs. Wilf McLaughlin. Mr. and Mrs. Chester Bailey have returned from their vacation, spent in Toronto and Ni- agara Falls area, bringing home with them Mrs. Bailey's granddaughter, Heather McIsaac, of Toronto, to spend the summer. Mr. and Mrs. Henry Pinion were in Geraldton for the recent graduation ceremony when their daughter Elizabeth Anne (Betty) received her S$.S.H.G.D. nursing. Betty plans to take a degree in