Canadian National Railway is planning to discontinue a portion of unused rail line in northeastern Saskatchewan between Tisdale and Hudson Bay, Sask.
Warren Chandler, a spokesperson for CN Rail in Edmonton, confirmed that the company has reclassified a portion of its Tisdale, Sask., line to the “discontinued” designation.
“On July 6, CN did place 55 miles of rail line between Kearly, (Sask.) and Mutchler (Sask.) on the discontinuance list,” Chandler said.
“This line has not been in use for over three years and has seen no traffic.”
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Mutchler is just outside of Hudson Bay, Sask., and Kearly is 25 kilometres east of Tisdale.CN’s
Tisdale line is significant because it connects at Mutchler with another CN line that runs northeast to The Pas, Man.
That line eventually connects with the Hudson Bay Railway system, which is the only rail line that leads to Port of Churchill at Churchill, Man.
Gerry Breitkreuz, Conservative MP for the Saskatchewan riding of York-ton- Melville, said CN’s plans to discontinue a portion of the Tisdale line could open the door for other interested parties to acquire the track and resume east-west grain shipments to Mutchler.
“If CN changes the status of the railway, this would be an excellent opportunity for another corporation to come in and fill the void that has been left,” Breitkreuz said.
“It would also allow our farmers another opportunity to ship their grain in a manner that best serves their business needs.”
Before a rail company can formally discontinue a portion of railway, it must inform the Canadian Transportation Agency of its plans, include its intentions in a mandatory network plan and advertise the line’s availability to interested parties.
After 12 months, a formal notice of discontinuance is issued and interested parties are then given 60 days to express their interest in buying the line for the purpose of continuing to operate the line.
Interested parties have six months in which to negotiate a deal.
If no deal is reached, the line must then be offered for sale to municipal and provincial governments.
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