CN has had a less than perfect relationship with shortline and regional railroads. It is almost funny to see how many times CN spun off or purchased a shortline, only for it to blow up in their face. This post will highlight the most noteable examples of this, starting from east and heading west.
Quebec Railway Corperation - Purchased in 2008. Significant parts were threatened with abandonment. Most has been walked back from the brink with a decent outlook for traffic as the Gaspé Railway reopens. Ottawa in limbo, but there are no immediate signs of closure.
GEXR/Rail Link - In the face of traffic growth in Southern Ontario, CN pulled the rug out from underneath G&W. CN has put a lot into rehabbing these former operations as G&W is well known for not maintaining their infrastructure.
STER - Trillium pulls out. CN works with OSR to provide interim service to portions of the line. Later, OSR’s Tillsonburg bridge craps out and then the whole thing is reactivated. New traffic never materializes, OSR pulled out this year, just after CN spends millions on rehab across the line.
Algoma Central - Unwanted asset acquired as part of the Wisconsin Central purchase. Receives the usual CN treatment of loving contempt and neglect. This year, the portion between Sault and Hawk Jct. is mothballed. The line is confirmed as for sale in 2 years once CN’s contractual obligations to the Agawa Canyon train are met.
Northern Alberta lines - CN sells hundreds of miles of these branch lines, Mackenzie Northern, Athabasca Northern and Lakeland Waterways Railway. The short lines do not do well. CN buys them back, presumably for more than they sold them and put 10s of millions into bringing them back in shape. They all remain in operation.
BC Rail - The most famous recent example of government corruption involving freight railways. CN got the railway because they were a party donor. They were the worst choice of all the bidders because th
To me, it seems that CN doesn’t do a good job ensuring that these shortlines can stand on their own. This means that CN eventually has to spend the money to buy back these lines, to make sure the carload traffic coming off of them doesn’t simply go away.
CN lines around Ottawa are just barely holding on, and will most likely be sold in the coming years. The deal with CSX to buy the Massena Line from CSX has fallen through. The Algoma Central is going up for sale in 2 years. CN also recently announced that they want to sell 850 miles of ex-WC lines in Wisconsin and Michigan. It was rumored that CN bid on the CMQ, but lost out to CP. CSX is looking like the winner in the “Great Pan Am Sweepstakes,” even though many expected CN to snatch up PAR/PAS quickly.
While I complement JJ Ruest for trying to grow CN’s traffic, it’s quite hard to believe that this is the same railroad that blitzed south by buying up IC, WC, EJ&E, and many others. The way things are looking, the saga will continue…
As was noted, CN bought many of these lines back after they were run into the ground by the shortline operators. RailAmerica, Savage, Omnitrax and Genesee & Wyoming have done a pretty terrible job at maintaining many of their Canadian operations.
Omnitrax bid on BC Rail too, it may be for the best that they didn’t win. BNSF would probably have been a better choice, hindsight being 20/20.
CN has poured billions (with a B) into track rehab across northern Alberta over the last 15 years, and money, welded rail and ballast continues to pour into the muskeg. Traffic has increased steadily on the former Railnet/Savage and Mackenzie Northern lines, but has declined recently on the former Athabasca Northern, which is completely dependent on oilsands traffic.
Welded rail is being laid on the southern half of the former Great Slave Railway, so heavy 6-axle power can reach a new grain terminal at High Level, AB (closer to Yellowknife than Edmonton). This line is currently restricted to 4-axle units, and heavy southbounds sometimes rate 6 or 7 GP40s.
The Okanagan line is still going steady, but is almost completely dependent on forest products.
Depending on the definition of “mothballed:” If the line isn’t being used for freight service, and the Huron Central (ex-CP line to Sudbury) bows out on December 18 (unless they get more money), does this really mean that the only rail link to and from the Soo will be up-for-sale ex-Soo Line route from Gladstone via Trout Lake?
COVID is changing everything, but FWIW, the Rocky Mountaineer website still shows its “Golden Circle” tour via the ex-BC Rail route via Lillooet (overnighting in Quesnel). Does this mean the end of this service? With the operating profile of the ex-PGE between Squamish and Williams Lake, it’s no surprise CN would prefer the route via Kamloops and McBride, but for the same reason, I would doubt they would keep the line through Lillooet as a through route for just the Rocky Mountaineer…
Always get great information from you, SD70Dude! I knew that wheat was grown in Northwest Alberta, but never thought that the quantity was such that it would warrant a “shuttle” grain train facility (a newspaper article says up to 135 cars). Hard to believe the rate would be competitive with facilities on or near the CN main line across the prairies (assuming that the grain would go to Prince Rupert or Vancouver).
BNSF taking over BC Rail would have been interesting, but too-far-flung of an empire for the Vancouver-only connection, that would have been exacerbated by the congested Second Narrows bridge route.
At this point, it seems clear that the Huron Central will be operating in 2021, the only questions are what operator and how much funding? Talks with government and stakeholders are underway and the consequences of ending service on that route are well known. As for the ACR, it has its own reasons for importance and potential traffic flows, but as it is now, we are going to have to cross that bridge when we get there.
CN is keeping it. They have said that it isn’t going to be abandoned. If they went and did that, they would rank themselves as one of the most hated companies in BC and it may violate the conditions of their lease. From what I understand, the extent of their closure is that they no longer run service between Squamish and Williams Lake so I don’t know if that would preclude Rocky Mountaineer from running over the line as long as they paid CN enough. Moreover, improvements in BC’s forest industry over time, like today with the US cutting softwood lumber tarrifs may see traffic return, but it certainly doesn’t help with the fact that CN h
Some shortlines and regionals here appear to be doing well judging from volumes. G&W’s former CN line from Ste. Rosalie, QC to Portland, ME for example. The Guelph Junction Railway (which is about as short as one can get as a short line at 18 km) also appears to be thriving… Generally the lines that have access to a well diversified base of business do better than those that rely heavily on only one mill or customer.
Are there any actual customers between Sault Ste. Marie and Hearst anymore? Does CP still take east traffic for the CN from Thunder Bay and set out at Franz for the CN (ex-Algoma Central) to move to Oba?
CN’s traffic in the Upper Peninsula is mainly clustered on the west end centered on Gladstone.
East of UP Paper in Manistique (thanks for the correction, Backshop) is a large pulp loading operation in Gulliver, a lime and stone loading operation in Port Inland, a pulp loading operation in Caffey, a pulp loading operation in Trout Lake, and that is really about it all the way to Sault St. Marie.
At Trout Lake there is a branch to Newberry where there is a pulp loading operatIon and a Louisiana Pacific Hardwoods Plant, and Neenah Paper has a plant in Munising at the end of the branch.
Yes, you are right. Thanks, Backshop! I grew up near Green Bay back in the day when the car ferries still ran, and spent a lot of time four-wheeling on abandoned rights of way back in the day in the UP. I’ll correct the post. Thanks again!
Sitting between 58°N Lat and 59°N Lat. If IIRC High Level, AB and the surrounding Peace River region is one of two of the most northerly areas that produce grain in the World. The other being Estonia.
I know the Port Inland operation was designed as a seperate quarry-to-port line. Does any stone get interchanged with the ex-Soo line? Also I understand the Soo line gets overhead traffic iron ore for Algoma Steel and nickel concentrate for Sudbury.
I’ve seen pictures of GP9s in a distinctive Yellow and White “Great Slave Lake Division” paint schem. I would love to see a big diesel painted in this scheme, just for the halibut. I know railroads need a better reason to do things, but they are doign heritage units right now.
If CN is selling off Algoma Central, and WC trackage, maybe we will get a new AC/WC in the near future?
If you check out Port Inland in Google Maps you can see the dock. There is a rail spur to the loading area and a couple of other spurs in the mining complex. I would hazard a guess to say that there must be some product interchanged to CN but most likely lake boats handle the most product.
In the current satellite view there is a lake boat at the dock as well as a locomotive with a cut of loaded cars and a cut of empty cars on the adjacent track. Those might be interplant movements. But the connection to the main line is a wye so one has to think some of the lime is going out by rail.
Something I wonder about is why CN never reopened the line from Grande Prairie to Dawson Creek. They commited to it as part of their winning the bid for BC Rail.
Technically, the line between Hythe, AB and Dawson Creek, BC is in service. It just has a 10 mph speed limit and movements are not permitted without higher authorization.
I don’t believe any trains ever operated across this section after CN “restored” it, but I’ve heard it has been used for one or two MOW equipment moves over the years.
There are several massive wooden trestles on this section, which have received little to no maintenance over the last 25-30 years. As this section of the line has no local traffic, CN and Railnet/Savage decided to route all Grande Prairie area traffic to run via Grande Cache, and leave their remaining Dawson Creek area customers to BC Rail, which of course is now CN as well.
While visiting my grandmother in Michigan, I had the opportunity to ride the Agawa Canyon train. It was a nice ride, decent scenery, but industry-wise it seemed like a whole lot of nothing.
Was there really enough industry on the East shore of Lake Superior to keep the Algoma Central in business as an independent company? Obviously WC saw something in them. I don’t have an esxtensive knowledge of that part of Ontario, so I may be missing something, but perhaps it doesn’t have enough traffic for a class 1 the size of CN to want to deal with.