My ramblings often try to make a point, sometimes including subtle smidgens of humour. I hope everyone realizes I am not a scholar and have very little expertise.

Just enough expertise to usually know when I am being hoodwinked. And, please don’t try to confuse me.

As my old high school buddies and I regularly say, “We are just small-town greaseballs from the Garden City of St. Catharines.”

But this fact has rarely stopped me from pontificating. So I now feel qualified to comment on the never-ending conversation about GO Train service from Toronto to Niagara.

Earlier this week, for reasons that seemed important at the time, I reviewed the Metrolinx Go Rail Niagara Service Extension Initial Business Case. Published in November 2015, and not much has changed in the last decade.

Tough slogging, logical, and frustrating. So many big words and bureaucratic acronyms.

Politicians from several levels of government and from various political stripes enthusiastically jump on the GO Train service bandwagon at any opportunity. A big train engine makes a great backdrop for photo ops.

Something I learned back as a dinner show owner in Kamloops, B.C., provides me a unique and useful perspective on this subject.

Simply put, you can own the trains, but if you don’t own the train tracks and the rail bed, you are likely to be toast before too long.

We had a joint venture partnership with Rocky Mountaineer Vacations, which sells and operates one of the most magnificent train trips in the entire world.

They are masters of their luxury travel game, but their Achilles heel has often been that they run their two-level domed train cars over tracks they don’t own. Harsh realities regularly rise up to bite them.

Rocky Mountaineer trains carrying passengers from Canada and around the world were regularly told to get off the main CN Rail line and wait on a siding.

Sometimes over 200 freight cars filled with tons of potash or grain were heading for the Port of Vancouver to meet a waiting ship ready to leave on “a just-in-time” delivery schedule.

Now, rolling round the bend directly back to Niagara and our precious promise of GO Train service.

First of all, it is sobering to realize that not a lot of people live in the Niagara Peninsula. OK, throw in a big bunch of tourists.

Still not enough travellers to warrant the gazillion dollar expenditure to expropriate land and build the necessary rail lines, stations and road infrastructure. And many other costly costs.

All this to make us happier residents of our admittedly wonderful part of the world. And in case you have missed it, “GO” is the clever acronym for the Government of Ontario.

Why is Ross the Rambler being such a wet blanket today?

Because just yesterday I was given a tour of the infrastructure work being done in west St. Catharines, preparing for the commencement of the magic pill that will be GO Train service to Niagara.

I was attentive and polite, but very skeptical. The train tracks are on the CN corridor. Passenger traffic is destined to play second fiddle to freight.

Not to mention the very important Welland Canal. Who is going to build a skyway or a tunnel so that GO Trains will not be stopped whenever a lake boat or ocean-going vessel is on a conflicting schedule, in transit between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie?

To date, there has not been a substantive discussion between Metrolinx and the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation on this very important subject.

This Ross’ Ramblings has gone on long enough, with enough negativity. But I have always avoided being negative.

I am attempting to be pragmatic. There is a very big difference.

And as I stated earlier, I don’t like being hoodwinked.

It is absolutely true that great things don’t get accomplished without great and creative thinking by great people.

The Welland Canal and our national, trans-continental railroads are excellent examples of what can happen when great projects are undertaken.

Times are different now. Come to think of it, times have always been different.

So who knows what is going to happen regarding the future of public transit in Niagara, Ontario and Canada?

Certainly, I don’t pretend to have the answers.

I have just been writing my weekly rambling.