They took the rails
There is an old joke about a town being so small that they roll up the sidewalks at night. I have never personally seen that happen. However in many places where I have lived they do remove the rails. Now, think about that for a moment. Laying rails is a big job and it serves a big purpose. Trains were a great way to travel. That someone will come along and steal all that iron strikes me as odd. After all even though the rails were not being used there was still potential. We do not remove old roadways or canals or air strips. Not even paths through the woods. But there is this vision of a future where rails go away. I have walked the rails and I am aware of the danger when there are still trains in use. This does not seem to be the condition. This is more where someone is retaking what was expropriated from them. Apparently in this province we have lost all but a few 100 meters of rail. In sections of neighbouring provinces all rail trails are common sight. If these paths were put to better use it might be a good idea but I think that all too often those responsible are terribly short sighted. If we still had rails lying around as people say we could put small trains in place that would do excellent work add moving passengers from point A to point B. They will not find the budgets to re-lay rail.
