Railway Items from Local Area Papers - 2025

Ottawa Citizen 1 March 2025

Brockville approves $172,000 for Railway Tunnel lighting
 

Staff wants to avoid equipment failure
 

The city will spend another $172,000 on lighting for the Brockville Railway Tunnel, hoping to avoid a repeat of last year’s equipment failure scenario ahead of a significant tourism season.
And while the city expects to spend annually on new tunnel lights, officials hope that annual dollar figure will trend downward.
Brockville council on Tuesday backed a recommendation to spend up to $172,350 on replacement lighting equipment for the tunnel, a popular tourism attraction.
A staff report to council notes the recently approved city budget did not include the proposed tunnel lighting maintenance project, and staff considered it “prudent” to raise the issue before the tunnel opens for the season in the spring.
The tunnel had to be closed for part of last spring, after city workers discovered large-scale damage to the lights inside the attraction.
The constant dripping in the tunnel left mineral deposits on the lenses of the lights, which in turn caused water infiltration, leading to their rapid failure. Meanwhile, water infiltration into the pedestals along the tunnel also took out many of the enablers that drive the facility’s light show.
The tunnel opened in mid-May with a reduced light show as the city awaited delivery of new lighting equipment, and was then restored to its former glory in early July.
While the city expects a better outcome from its new equipment, it also wants to be ready to deal with any unexpected issues, given the massive influx of tourists expected for this June’s Tall Ships Festival.
The tunnel’s lighting system includes 13 kiosks with controls and electrical panels; 728 lighting fixtures; and 26 lighting enablers.
Each kiosk has two enablers that together control 56 light fixtures, notes the staff report.
“Based on the observed rate of equipment failure,” the report adds, parks department staffers are recommending that an annual “generalized rate of replacement of equipment” be determined.
For starters, they suggest the lighting and enabler equipment of one of the 13 kiosks be bought and replaced. That would include 56 lighting fixtures, 56 lighting covers, and two enablers for one kiosk, as well as four spare enablers in case of failures.
“If this season is at all like the previous seasons, we should be prepared to want to change out an entire module,” operations director Phil Wood told council Tuesday.
“That is at least going to give us our best fighting chance to keep the system working, hopefully without interruption, hopefully without gaps, in the coming tourism season.”
Buying the equipment now gives the city a better chance to react, or even replace a section of lights proactively, keeping those that are still working as spares, added Wood.
The maximum of $172,350 would be funded from the city’s fiscal policy reserve, so it would have no impact on the tax levy.
Coun. Jeff Earle bristled at the thought of an annual amount for lighting replacement.
“The way I read the motion in there, is that it meant that we were going to be putting $172,000 a year for the next 13 years,” he said.
Earle calculated a slightly higher average of $200,000 a year for 13 years, which would see the city spend $2.6 million.
But Wood replied that the annual amount for replacement is expected to go down, given the improvements the city has made to guard against water infiltration.
“We’d like to see the attrition rate drop off,” said Wood.






This Page Updated 2 March 2025

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