Walkers under the bridge

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by George Maddux

In olde England, whenever fox-hunting nobility would attempt to cordon off well-used pathways, commoners would unite and demolish the barriers. In a similar spirit, residents of lower NDG would traditionally cut holes in the fence around the railway tracks that separate them from the rest of the community.

But last year, the Canadian Pacific Railway reinforced the fence and started threatening walkers with $136 trespassing fines. Citizens are directed to the Melrose pedestrian underpass, an unwieldy, urine-drenched hotbed of assault and robbery.

"Even grown men are afraid to go down there," says Sonia Biddle, the local councillor who says a war veteran recently told her of his wife being beaten and robbed in the tunnel. Biddle says that police and the CPR repeatedly deny any problem with the pedestrian walkway, although 300 signatories of a new petition denouncing the underpass would apparently disagree. Police from NDG Station 11 ducked the Mirror's calls, while Michel Spénard of the CPR says an additional overpass or level crossing could be possible only if the city foots the bill.