It is wrong to simply criticize others for not having any ideas. You need to first prove that you can come up with solutions. In that vein, we have been knocking our noodle to come up with the perfect use for the soon to be restored antique Allandale Train Station.
The Allandale Station in Babel has a rich history. It was a functional facility as a train station for the Grand Trunk Railway when opened in 1905. There had been other structures on the site from the time train service was first provided in 1853 by the Ontario, Simcoe and Huron Union Railroad. In 1923, the British owned Grand Trunk was morphed into the federal government’s Canadian National Railways.
CNR took its rails and left Babel in 1996. Considered briefly as a possible broadcast centre for CHUM Ltd., that plan fell through with the announced takeover of CHUM interests by CTV in 2006. The city got it back and has been trying to figure out what to do with the station since. Only a few developers have shown interest and, after a brief flirtation with a plan for the local YMCA, nothing has been proposed that sticks or seems to excite anybody.
Our first idea was that it would make a wonderful site for a chocolate factory. With or without the partnership of Warner Bros. studios that released the fanciful movies: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory in 1971 and the remake, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in 2005, a chocolatier’s world can be a wondrous place for young and old alike.
We have a chocolatier friend who can make a truffle that is out of this world. If we could offer him a shop that has been restored for some $4 million, he would not know whether to laugh or cry.
But we need more than a chocolate shop. A train station is a place for adventure. It speaks of journeys and new places, excitement and experiences. It has to entertain and involve. It certainly has to be something more than a travel agency.
What occurs to us is that it would make a fascinating entrance to a casino and convention hotel. We could run excursion trains from Toronto every day full of fun-loving gamblers. We could finally have the logical two-way traffic that GO Trains have always needed. We would become an Ontario destination of distinction. We could rival Niagara Falls.
If a tribe of 80 some Indians could pull it off in a backwater like Rama, it will be a piece of cake for Babel. And with a provincial election coming up in the fall, we could send someone to Queen’s Park with a purpose for a change.
– 30 –
Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]