BURLINGTON — The upcoming Canadian federal election has derailed efforts to establish a customs facility that would allow for the return of passenger train service from Vermont to Montreal.
Amtrak ran the Montrealer ran from Washington, D.C., through Vermont, to Canada’s second largest city from 1972 to 1995, when the line was changed due to Amtrak budget cuts. It was rechristened the Vermonter, with a terminus in St. Albans.
Officials have been advocating for the revival of the route over the past decade, and a federal grant recently helped upgrade the tracks between St. Albans and the Canadian border.
The biggest hurdle was cleared when U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., introduced legislation to allow the expansion of customs preclearance facilities in Canada. The Promoting Travel, Commerce and National Security Act was signed into law in 2017, followed by companion legislation in Canadian Parliament.
Now a preclearance site can be built at Central Station in Montreal to allow screening of passengers heading to and from both countries.
Preclearance is a special customs procedure which clears passengers before they travel to the United States. If a passenger is cleared they can enter the country freely upon arrival. Likewise, if a passenger is not cleared they are blocked from entering the U.S.
There are currently more than a dozen U.S. preclearance facilities internationally.
The facility where U.S. Customs and Border Protection will operate will be similar to how Amtrak currently operates in Vancouver. The platform after customs screening will be sealed off from the rest of Central Station.
Carl Fowler, National Association of Railroad Passengers vice chair and a member of the Vermont Rail Action Network, said a design has been created but both countries have yet to work out an agreement on the specifications and dividing the costs. Funding sources need to be determined.
“So what is the long reason for the delay in getting back up there? The answer is the need to get organized customs and immigration in Central Station in Montreal,” he said.
The project is now held up until Canadians elect a new federal government in October, now that the Liberal government under Justin Trudeau has reached the end of its mandate.
“Everything is sort of in suspense until that happens,” Fowler said.
Once the facility is built in Montreal, passengers heading north can board the train at any stop until St. Albans and will be processed by Canadian customs upon arrival. Passengers heading south to Vermont will pass through the U.S. preclearance facility and then will be free to exit at any stop.
There will be no stops between Montreal and St. Albans.
Leahy said allowing for preclearance has required a “complex roadmap.”
“The next step is to work with Ministère des Transports du Québec, the national government in Canada and the owners of Montreal Central Station to develop the site plan and operation agreement,” he said in a statement. “I look forward to working with the Prime Minister, the Premier and US Customs and Border Protection to keep the momentum on this effort moving forward.”
The only Amtrak service currently running to Montreal is the Adirondack, from New York City through the Hudson River Valley and along Lake Champlain’s western shore. It is regularly delayed by more than an hour and a half for screening at the border.
Amtrak’s Vermonter runs daily from Washington, D.C., to St. Albans, and the Ethan Allen Express runs daily from New York City to Rutland.
Officials are currently working on upgrades to restore passenger rail to the Queen City with the Ethan Allen Express with a target of 2021 or 2022 for resuming service. A large-scale bridge project still needs to be completed in Middlebury, and the Vermont Department of Transportation still needs to select a site for train storage – a decision which has sparked controversy.
Fowler expects the Montreal service could resume in two years. The trains will run into Essex Junction – not Burlington – until the state upgrades the six miles of track between the two stations.
State officials met with the Canadian Ministry of Transportation in April and dialogue continues, according to meeting minutes from the Vermont Rail Advisory Council. The last passenger train to depart from Union Station and travel to Montreal was in 1953, according to Fowler.
There is a small stretch of Canadian track where higher speed upgrades could be done, but overall little work is needed.
Fowler said the Montrealer made travel north of the border easy and convenient for Vermonters. He hopes with the addition of the Ethan Allen Express to have one train run by day and one by night to have an appealing option for both Canadians and Americans.
“You could go to Montreal for a day, from any station, basically White River Junction and north in the course of a single day,” he said. The Montrealer used to get in at 10:45 in the morning, it left at 5:15 in the evening, and you didn’t need a hotel in Montreal.”
Tom Torti, president of the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce, said he is looking forward to the return of passenger rail to Montreal.
“From a carbon emissions perspective, greenhouse gas reduction, the more we can push passenger rail as a means of transportation for people who are coming to Vermont, regardless of the season, I think that’s a good thing,” he said.