October 22, 1998 

There is only one local issue that has lasted as long as my entire career as an elected official. It has died away from view from time to time, only to burst into recrudescence with renewed vigour. This hardy perennial of Westmount politics inevitably guarantees media attention, and, very often, elicits a good deal of emotion.

The issue? The Westmount Train Station.

One month after my mandate began in November 1983 as alderman (it was so long ago we called ourselves aldermen, not that desexed title 'councillor'), I met with CP Rail about the shortly-to-be-redundant railway station. They made me an offer to sell the station to the city for $1, on the condition it be moved. CP was also prepared to pay a small amount to take it off their hands, rather pointedly offering an amount equivalent to the cost of demolition, or about $15,000. They would give us no land.

Over the next 15 years, that little building sat there accusingly while a whole bewildering series of schemes were floated as to what could be done with it. Art gallery, transportation museum, library annex, shop, restaurant (lots of those!), school, community centre, seniors' residence, even a chapel. And, way back in January, 1985, was a suggestion it become a permanent home for the Westmount Historical Association.

This building, which had sheltered many a traveller for generations with its generous eaves and welcoming wooden benches, didn't lack for cham-pions, but the city was looking for a permanent solution. (And, as long as the 15-acre site to the south was up for residential development, the station could serve as its gateway. A 10% parkland contribution on 15 acres would have allowed the station to be free of any buildings around it.)

One roadblock that took a decade to resolve was CP's insistence on moving the station for safety reasons. However, common sense, historical conven-tion, and simple economics required that it stay put.

The National Transportation Agency approved the transfer to the city in 1990. In December, 1993, I wrote to CP, offering to buy the station for $1, a long as it included the "vacant lot to the east of the station...along with the parking lot in front". I got turned down. Then I got the idea of incorporating it into a new police and fire station: in my view, an elegant way to recycle the station sympathetically. The requisite zoning change was narrowly defeated after a bitter struggle.

In November 1997, CP also offered the station to the WHA. One small hitch. The proposed 32-house residential project that would surround the beleaguered station would have to be approved by the city.

The new deal we have brokered keeps some key views of the station (especially the important view from the Glen). The city gets two-thirds of an acre of parkland for $250,000. And with the WHA's help, the station will be restored. And the WHA gets a new home into the bargain.

17 Sept. 12 nov

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