Friday morning rail news: CN, CP call Saskatoon shared-main proposal ‘unworkable’ The proposal by the city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, to have Canadian National and Canadian Pacific share a rail corridor through the city to decrease traffic disruptions has been shot down by both railroads. CTV News reports both railroads sent letters to City Manager Jeff […]
MONTREAL — Canadian National is working to build what it’s calling “intermodal of the future” by experimenting with terminal improvements and fully integrating the operations and people from its recent trucking-company acquisitions. “We know that in order to compete down the road with the truck, that we have to not only be safer, more efficient […]
MONTREAL — Canadian National is recalling furloughed train crews and pulling locomotives and freight cars out of storage as traffic rebounds. “We are pivoting to recovery,” Chief Financial Officer Ghislain Houle told a webcast on Wednesday, noting strong growth trends in domestic intermodal, Canadian grain, and Canadian coal traffic. Overall, CN’s July traffic was 5% […]
More Friday morning rail news: CN marks record grain year, releases plan for 2020-21 Canadian National announced completion of a record year for grain movement on Thursday, and said it would dedicate more equipment to the commodity next year as part of its 2020-21 Grain Plain. CN moved more than 30 million metric tons of […]
Thursday midday rail news: CN to spend more than $520 on U.S. capital work Canadian National will spend more than $520 million on capital projects in the United States, according to state-by-state plans released this week. Notable projects include work on Chicago’s St. Charles Air Line bridge; a new auto facility in New Richmond, Wis; […]
MONTREAL — Canadian National plans to spin off 850 miles of low-density routes in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ontario, the railway said today while announcing its quarterly financial results. Railroad officials did not specify which lines will be marketed for sale to short line operators. But executives say the bulk of the routes on the block […]
Saturday morning rail news: TSB report cites CN crew error in sideswipe accident with VIA train The Transportation Safety Board of Canada has released its report on a September 2019 sideswipe collision between a VIA Rail Canada train and two tank cars in Ernestown, Ontario, finding that switching moves by a Canadian National crew caused […]
CHICAGO — Canadian National has won federal regulatory approval to double track more than four miles of its former Elgin, Joliet & Eastern route near Elgin, Ill., a project the railroad says will eliminate a chokepoint and improve the flow of rail traffic in and around Chicago. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a […]
Rail preservation and museum news in brief: Work begins on CN 6060 Work has begun to restore Canadian National No. 6060, the semi-streamlined 4-8-2 which had a heralded excursion career beginning in 1972 but has been inactive since 2011 and stored in Stetler, Alberta. The Rocky Mountain Rail Society is working to restore the locomotive, […]
WASHINGTON — Canadian National has defended its request for the Surface Transportation Board to wade into its long-running dispute with Canadian Pacific regarding where the railways interchange in Chicago. Both railroads continue to exchange cars at the Belt Railway of Chicago’s Clearing Yard, as they have under an August 2019 interim agreement that shifted the […]
MONTREAL — Canadian National will be ready to take advantage of economic changes that have been accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic, CEO JJ Ruest told an investor conference today. Ruest paraphrased hockey great Wayne Gretzky, saying that CN wants to head where the puck will be rather than where the puck is today. And that […]
More Friday morning rail news: CN employee killed by ‘kicked’ car, railroad says The Canadian National conductor killed at the railroad’s Surrey, British Columbia, yard earlier this week was hit by a car the conductor’s train had “kicked” a few minutes earlier, according to a CN “safety flash” issued to employees. In the June 1 […]
