BBC documentary drawing attention to old Nova Scotia railway
Posted Aug 22, 2018 11:07:33 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The British Broadcasting Corporation is making a TV series about railways and their impact on North America.
They spent a day filming in Fort Lawrence, Nova Scotia in July and will be back again this summer.
The BBC crew was documenting the Chignecto Marine Ship Railway in Cumberland County for the show Great American Railway Journeys.
Construction began in 1888, and the plan was for ships to dock at the Northumberland Straight in Tidnish, then be pulled by rail to the Bay of Fundy in Fort Lawrence.
Bill Casey is the MP for Cumberland-Colchester, and he says this route would have saved ships about 1,000 km in travel distance.
“The theory was that most of the trade from Central Canada and the St. Lawrence River has to go down around Nova Scotia to the United States,” said Casey.
The railway was never completed due to financial problems. The project was stopped in 1891.
Casey hopes this exposure might prompt the province to protect the area, develop it, and promote it as a tourist destination.
