Update June 15, 2010: I checked out this entrance to les Champs des possibles, and found it unblocked as well as another place further to the west where we often cross the track. In addition two women were gathering signatures on a petition for a level crossing and an end to the tickets for trespassing. June 14, 2010: More news from that long swath of no-longer-frequently used land, the Canadian Pacific tracks. Sunday a group of people who want to get from one side of the tracks to the other protested the zeal with which holes in the fence which borders the tracks are being shut. In past years, it took no longer than a day for a patched hole to be oepned up again, but recently it seems that the railroad has been handing out $150 trespassing tickets to people who dare to infringe on the vacant land.
There are a couple underpasses that a pedestrian or cyclist can use, but cutting across the track is much shorter. Last summer when I went to Jean Talon Market I often came back along the track--and I would have been furious if I'd had to retrace my steps if the holes in the fence were all shut.
As one user comments on the Le Devoir story reporting the protest, it's much safer to cross a track that is used a half dozen times a day than it is to cross a busy street. There even is a Face Book group, Passages dans la track du Mile End - Ways to cross the Mile End train track.
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