CN is buying 3 Railamerica shortlines in Alberta, which consist of track formerly part of CN.
http://www.canada.com/topics/finance/story.html?id=9d823ee3-5510-4fc7-89f9-870b092e5210&k=8411
http://www.canada.com/topics/finance/story.html?id=1a987d85-5460-4f1e-a3ef-4a0e6e830bca&k=85714
http://www.railamerica.com/railmaps/MKNR.htm
Sounds similar to the IC Iowa line. The line was sold to Chicago Central & Pacific during the ICG selloff of other than core lines and was re-acquired by IC just prior to the merger with CN.
Interesting-In cases like this, I always wonder if the person who determined CN should buy these lines is the same one who told them to see these lines 9 years earlier?
This certainly caught me off-guard, I had no idea that CN was interested in the MACKENZIE NORTHERN RAILWAY, seems as though they have their eyes on the oil sands projects.
Didn’t see it coming.
A report last week surmised that the Tar Sands will be the world’s largest supplier in the next 15-20 years. I wonder if the prices were “right” for all parties.
I have to confess my ignorance; I did not know we still had so many short lines in Canada, let alone Aberta.
I still find it slightly ironic that CN sold the lines, then bought them back.
Granted CN doesn’t even slightly resemble the CN of 10 years ago.
That should lower the prices for the customers using those lines. It should also increase CN’s revenues from them. Sounds like an interesting aquisition.
Now all they have to do is to rebuy the line from Montreal to Portland and we’ll be all set 
Oh no, I was hoping to see the MNR sometime…they’ve got some interesting motive up there…### Did you knowThey are the owners of the sole 3 BL20-2s ever built?
I wonder if there would be a pipeline somewhere in the future, along thr ROW?
I’ll say what I said in the other CN post. Shortlines are a pestilence to Class I’s. It is easier to buy 'em back and shut 'em down.
Dave-
You have this backwards.
CN wants to expand these lines. The MacKenzie Northern is the jumping off point for the $5 billion MacKenzie Valley natural gas pipeline. There will be a lot of traffic for this line hauling the equipment for the pipeline and the wells that will be built along it. The other railroad serves the Alberta Tar sands area, where spending is forcast at $100 billion over the next ten years, this project is gigantic, and very important to Canada and the USA.
Even so, I’ll continue to play the cynic here. Unless there are long term prospects for running unit oil trains or LNG trains on this line, even the traffic involved in delivering pipe and equipment up there is only temporary. Once the oil and gas projects are completed, what kind of traffic could this line possibly have afterward?
Now, if they discover coal up there…
Really it’s quite simple, when CN was owned by the government, they could not make money on these smaller lines so they sold them off, now after being privatized and a big turn around for CN, they ar able to make money from thes elines/
Now connect the Mckenzie valley pipeline and the tar sands area (Railway??) over to Prince Rupert and supply the new China Market, I believe there are a FEW people there that could use some oil, and connect the Alaska through Canada Railway to access the China market at Prince Rupert also(HMMMM maybe not eh?)
What changed to make it possible to make money on these lines now that CN is a privatized company?
What changed is the oil sands. That wasn’t such a big deal back then when oil was cheap and extracting the oil from the sands was less developed and more expensive.
My question though is where does all this leave CP Rail, didn’t they used to be part owner of Northern Alberta Rail at one time? Now CN is gonna have all the access.
CN purchased CP’s interest in Northern Alberta Railways long before they sold the lines off to Rail America. If CP had wanted access they could have purchased the lines from Rail America instead of CN so I doubt CP’s managers are loosing any sleep over it.
Good thinking. Quite possibly.