This seems to be another chapter in a long running story of the on-going discoveries of Iron Ore in the Labrador Trough area of Far Northern Quebec.
Today’s TRAINSNewswire has the latest chapter; The following headline and quote:
"Quebec to fund feasibility study for proposed iron ore line"Published: June 10, 2014 FTA:
“SEPT-ILES, Quebec – The provincial government of Quebec is committing up to $20 million towards a feasibility study for the construction of a new rail line in the Labrador Trough region of northern Quebec, the Canadian Press reports…”
USING The “SITE SEARCH” Feature on the right side of The Subscriber Only Page: Utilizing the Search for " Labrador"It pulls about a dozen articles from 2006 to the current of 2014
As some of the comments to the previous reports noted - particularly one by Terry Johnson to this March 22, 2012 report, also linked above - they should first look into expanding the capacity of the existing lines, instead of building an all-new line:
The current report also indicates that the study will be “reviewing the feasibility of upgrading capacity on existing lines”, as well as the new construction. Unless the expected volume will be an order of magnitude (i.e., 10 times) what it is now, any honest, impartial study will conclude in favor of upgrading the existing lines - instead of building a new one from scratch - for a whole bunch of reasons, from least cost to way less environmental and social impacts, etc.
Note that the proposal would still be a stand-alone railroad ending at Sept-Iles - no land connection to the North American rail network. That might be OK, though, because the iron ore will likely be going overseas anyway - to China, India, Brazil, etc.
I still have an English-French dictionary / phrasebook that I bought almost 20 years ago - to supplement my 4 years (!) of high school French - for the day when I finally go up there to see those lines. Oddly enough, I know 2 local railfans in the “Planning Commission” business in the Lehigh Valley, PA area who have gone there at least once (Olev and Alan). Maybe someday soon I too will get there . . . Anybody want to organize a group trip ?
I agree with Paul that they should work with the 2 existing lines already in place. They parallel each other from the Sept-Iles/Port Cartier area to the Labrador City area. The single line north of there was so devoid of traffic, it was sold to the local first nation tribe to keep rail service. The two existing lines, with little trackwork needed for connection, could be paired for directional running. It seems like the Quebec retirement fund was looking for a place to park a lot of money. In the meantime, they can’t get a single rail line built into the Ring-of-Fire mineral district in northern Ontario. Maybe Ontario’s retirement fund isn’t so flush, or maybe they don’t see it as a good investment…
According to the article CN is driving this initiative, and if their studies suggest additional potential revenues of 1.3 billion then I can appreciate why they might want to go it alone.
Ulrich would know better than I but my impression of Labrador was that is was mostly English speaking. Seems to be that the most French speakers are in the Eastern Townships. I know Montreal is easy to get on with English in most spots but toward Farnham and East it’s very French. Just my impression from traveling.