Youth hopes petition will help to save train station
Published Monday September 29th, 2008
A Fredericton teen is stepping up to the plate in hopes of preserving a crumbling relic of the city's past.
Murray Yeomans, a 15-year-old Leo Hayes High School student, has collected close to 300 signatures for a petition to save the York Street train station.
He said he plans to submit the document today to city council members.
Yeomans said he spent hours researching the history of the 84-year-old structure and has a new appreciation for the station's cultural significance.
He said he'd hate for it to end with a wrecking ball.
"Every time I've driven by the train station I thought, 'Somebody just needs to do something about this,' " Yeomans said.
"It's part of our heritage, it's a huge piece of railway history and it played a huge role in keeping Fredericton (connected) to the rest of the nation. So in my eyes, if the station was never built, Fredericton might not be the city it is today."
The Grade 10 student said the vast majority of those who signed his petition were high school students.
Yeomans said that shows many youths care deeply about issues that affect the community.
"The youth of Fredericton are just as concerned about this as the adults are," he said. "Many of us have ideas and beliefs about certain issues in Fredericton, but we sometimes have trouble putting the effort in to getting the message out there. I didn't want to do that."
Steve Boyko, president of Fredericton Friends of the Railway, said Yeomans contacted him last week to let him know he would be circulating the petition. He said he was impressed with the young man's enthusiasm.
"It shows that there's a broad range of support to restore the station, and it's not just people who remember the station from their youth, but it's also today's youth who are interested in keeping our heritage alive.
"We have lost so much of our links to the past and it would be great if we could preserve the station and find a use for it for future generations."
Yeomans said he knows what he'd like to see done with the station.
"I think it should become a historical part of Fredericton and used for possible re-enactments," he said. "I think a museum would also be a good idea and I think there would be a lot to go on."
The York Street train station sits on a piece of land owned by J.D. Irving Ltd. The company recently stated it was still weighing its options for how to move forward with development.
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