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dowlingm said:
CN seeks to discontinue 214 miles of the Rocky Mountaineer route from North Vancouver to Whistler and on to Jasper
(Affected track begins north of Squamish)
www.squamishchief.com

What could CN discontinuing its Sea to Sky Corridor line mean?

The Rocky Mountaineer's Rainforest to Gold Rush route may be at risk following Canadian National Railway's decision to discontinue parts of its B.C. lines.
www.squamishchief.com www.squamishchief.com
Click to expand...
This is the former BC Rail corridor, correct?
 
dowlingm said:
CN seeks to discontinue 214 miles of the Rocky Mountaineer route from North Vancouver to Whistler and on to Jasper
(Affected track begins north of Squamish)
www.squamishchief.com

What could CN discontinuing its Sea to Sky Corridor line mean?

The Rocky Mountaineer's Rainforest to Gold Rush route may be at risk following Canadian National Railway's decision to discontinue parts of its B.C. lines.
www.squamishchief.com www.squamishchief.com
Click to expand...
There is a proposal by the province to use it as commuter rail corridor.
 
lenaitch said:
This is the former BC Rail corridor, correct?
Click to expand...
Yes. BC Rail still own the ROW and lease to CN.

CN did suspend operations to Williams Lake before but that was during COVID.

Bordercollie said:
There is a proposal by the province to use it as commuter rail corridor.
Click to expand...
The question is how much anyone else can do north of Squamish (e.g. commuter or excursion service) if CN still control the section down to North Vancouver, and aren’t browbeaten into concessions re dispatching as a condition of the discontinuance, and who would be the passenger operator (WCE would be the first to mind but BC Rail would presumably need to take over line inspections / maintenance (or contract CN to keep doing it)

EDIT: just an additional note to point out, as someone else has on groups.io, that this being in the 3 year plan does not commit to immediately acting on it once the statutory wait period passes
 
dowlingm said:
Yes. BC Rail still own the ROW and lease to CN.

CN did suspend operations to Williams Lake before but that was during COVID.


The question is how much anyone else can do north of Squamish (e.g. commuter or excursion service) if CN still control the section down to North Vancouver, and aren’t browbeaten into concessions re dispatching as a condition of the discontinuance, and who would be the passenger operator (WCE would be the first to mind but BC Rail would presumably need to take over line inspections / maintenance (or contract CN to keep doing it)

EDIT: just an additional note to point out, as someone else has on groups.io, that this being in the 3 year plan does not commit to immediately acting on it once the statutory wait period passes
Click to expand...
Come to an agreement with dispatching.

It doesn't have to be CN, you can select another party to do maintenance.
 
ProjectEnd said:
Similar font / kerning to the 1957 one under the Barrie Line / Newmarket Sub bridge over Davenport:

www.google.com

Street View · Google Maps

Explore a place in a more immersive way in Google Maps.
www.google.com www.google.com
Click to expand...

This post from the USRC thread reminded me of my recent walk tracing the canal feeding the Beck Generating Stations in Niagara Falls. The old rail bridge over the canal north of Thorold Stone Road had a stamp from 1920. I believe this was a wye between Michigan Central and the current CN Stamford sub?

Location

PXL_20250713_193932501.jpg
 
Out on Vancouver Island ‘studying’* the revitalization of rail - electrified, battery and hydrogen - and fast, and this found its way to me….railway in a nutshell from a corporate earnings perspective.


* I am also ‘studying’ wildlife from a point just offshore of Ganges today, so with that in mind, we’ll keep the observations about the Island Rail Corridor from becoming too fantastical.
 
dowlingm said:
Yes. BC Rail still own the ROW and lease to CN.

CN did suspend operations to Williams Lake before but that was during COVID.


The question is how much anyone else can do north of Squamish (e.g. commuter or excursion service) if CN still control the section down to North Vancouver, and aren’t browbeaten into concessions re dispatching as a condition of the discontinuance, and who would be the passenger operator (WCE would be the first to mind but BC Rail would presumably need to take over line inspections / maintenance (or contract CN to keep doing it)

EDIT: just an additional note to point out, as someone else has on groups.io, that this being in the 3 year plan does not commit to immediately acting on it once the statutory wait period passes
Click to expand...
There appears to be a lot of quick discussions about the goverment advancing long dormant plans for a commuter service using these rails.
 
Union Pacific is making a play to buy Norfolk Southern, creating the first transcontinental railway in the US.

Union Pacific to Buy Norfolk Southern in $85 Billion Railroad Deal
Link bypasses the NYTimes paywall.

It sounds like UP would begin routing proportionately less traffic through Chicago and speeding up transcon schedules. Part of the billed advantage for importers to use CN and Port Metro Vancouver or Port Renfrew is that CN can get goods from the coast to destinations along the Mississippi and/or handed off to east coast railways faster than if goods came in through US pacific ports. That's largely due to the Gordian knot that is Chicago slowing down transcon shipping (due to the need to change railroads). A coast-to-coast UP could definitely chip away at that notional advantage for CN.

If a BNSF-CSX tie up comes to fruition in the next few years, which is pretty darn likely, three Class 1s would have disappeared this decade, which is wild.
 
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Northern Light said:
Clearly banking on Trump being open to Class 1 mergers that no president would have allowed in the last generation.

CN wasn't even allowed to take a shot KCS, Only the CP was allowed to take it on.

Might happen, probably shouldn't.
Click to expand...
Back in the 70's a map was found in CP Union Station office showing UP running into Toronto in place of CP with CP operating only in Canada.

Then there was the talks of CN taking over CP that was kill by the Feds.

As for CN, they already took over a number of US railroads using Grand Trunk that now has disappeared and why they couldn't go after KSC,

Sadly these mergers will happen do to greed by all levels with us paying the shareholders yearly dividends including shippers

It sad to visit many places in the US that had all kinds of RR and yards to see nothing or very little left of yards,

Under clueless Trump we may end up seeing less trains as he will allow monster trains and move to one man crew to move them.
 
turbanplanner said:
What are the downsides of the merger?
Click to expand...

It depends on how the fine print of the rules of competition are written.

Having only two transcontinental systems is not inherently wrong, as we have seen in Canada over the years.

However, there is certainly the opportunity for predatory behaviour if customers have no option to take their business elsewhere.

The ability to route end-to-end without interchange to another railroad is definitely an opportunity for efficiency and better service, although it is not a guarantee of good things.

There will doubtless be a round of hearings where the other railroads seek various forms of relief, including the right in places to access customers or use lines of the merged railway in addition to their own. There may be places where the merging railways are required to divest lines or open routes to competitors.

All depending, of course, if the regulator is active and engaged. That's far from certain under the current administration. But some things can be fixed if and when the political pendulum swings.

- Paul
 
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