The future of the rail line that cuts across London and carves up city hall plans — bus rapid transit being the latest — needs to be clarified.

That was the message from Coun. Phil Squire Wednesday as he pushed back against a colleague suggesting CP Rail move tracks running through the city’s heart — an option he called “unrealistic” based on past feedback.

“When we went through the rapid transit debate, every councillor got hundreds of emails saying, ‘Why don’t you just move the tracks?’ ” Squire said, referring to the controversial tunnel once proposed to run beneath the Richmond Row level crossing. “But we’ve got to put this thing to bed. We’ve either got to say we can do it or it’s a no-go.

“We’re going in circles here.”

Squire’s comments came in response to Coun. Bill Armstrong at Wednesday’s civic works committee meeting on the Talbot Street underpass. The passage, running under the train tracks, continues to be struck by about a half-dozen large trucks annually.

The “can-opener” effect has become local legend, with one person dedicating a Twitter account to the overpass (@talbotstbridge). Vehicles hit it 44 times between 2008 and 2016, staff say.

Armstrong raised the collisions as another reason why city hall needs to push the federal government to pull freight trains off that line. Doing so, he said, would save the city hundreds of millions of dollars by negating a proposed Adelaide Street bypass and the contentious rapid transit tunnel.

But is it realistic? City engineer Kelly Scherr said talks will resume with federal officials at some point, but said: “We’ve heard they’re not particularly interested in those solutions, but it doesn’t hurt to ask again.”

Squire said that kind of clarity is needed.

“Then I know exactly where we are right now. . . . Hopefully councillors will stop making speeches about it,” he said. “Let’s either find out it’s possible, what the number is, or not.

“But the circular ‘Let’s get it done, it would solve all of London’s problems’ — I don’t think it’s helpful.”

Said Armstrong: “The bottom line is, our community needs to see something happen. It’s time we saw some action (and) some serious co-operation, especially from CN and CP.”

London’s BRT system was built around a 900-metre tunnel that was to run beneath Richmond Row, largely to avoid the level rail crossing. But construction costs skyrocketed and city staff withdrew their recommendation to build it, and city council followed their advice.

Now, the $440-million BRT plan as designed faces system-stalling train delays on Richmond Row. Staff are studying possible ­bypasses.

pmaloney@postmedia.com

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