I think @hockeyinottawa.bsky.social knows more about the legal case but its my understanding it would be illegal not to, Transport Canada compelled the city to do it

Coles Notes: City wanted to bury the line, Moose argued this was illegal discontinuance because traffic can no longer use the line, CTA ruled in favour of Moose, TC overruled that decisions, so line gets buried. So the existence of Bayview is at the leisure of the current Minister of Transport.

So *technically*, according to TC, the line is still active. So, yeah, at any time the City can be told to allow freight traffic because they didnt want to purchase and discontinue it properly.

Yeah, I know a bunch of former Moose people.

I think their case was important (and the result sets a bad precedent), but I found their pitch a bit too out there. That said, their heart was in the right place. Small towns or not, I think regional rail is possible here. Smiths Falls - Ottawa - Alexandria, with intermediate stops, for example.

The two province issues plus the unique financing plan both made it hard to see it as a mainstream doable thing.