Link to northern port | An open market this fall and federal investment into Churchill port were factors in reopening the line
Canadian National Railway has had a change of heart about the value of an unused rail line in northeastern Saskatchewan.
CN spokesperson John Brayley confirmed last month that the company will reopen an 85 kilometre section of its Tisdale Subdivision between Hudson Bay, Sask., and Crooked River, Sask.
The line has not been used for several years and was listed for discontinuance in 2011.
However, the company has reconsidered the closure and now sees the track as an important asset.
“We are ready for change. As part of our effort to look for a change in the future, we will reopen the Tisdale line,” Brayley said
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He said work will begin this month to assess the condition of the line, identify soft spots and determine where repairs are needed.
The first task is to repair sections of the track.
“It (runs) through a sector of the country where there’s an awful lot of beavers and awful lot of water so we will have … to drain,” he said.
“We figure that the engineering process alone to upgrade the line is going to be over $10 million (and) the majority of that will be damage that’s been caused by water.”
CN officials would like to reopen the line as a Class 2 asset, meaning trains could run at a maximum speed of 25 m.p.h.
Rehabilitating the line will likely be a one- or two-year process with repair work beginning later this year.
Reopening the Crooked River to Hudson Bay section would give CN a continuous operational track that stretches more than 150 kilometres from Melfort, Sask., to Hudson Bay.
The company already owns and operates a section of track between Crooked River and Melfort.
A third portion of CN Tisdale, from Melfort to Birch Hills, Sask., is also slated for discontinuance, but the Hudson Bay Route Association has commissioned a study to determine the cost of reopening that section as well.
Brayley said Ottawa’s decision to eliminate single desk grain marketing and invest government money at the Port of Churchill was a key factor in CN’s decision to repair and reopen the Crooked River to Hudson Bay section.
The Tisdale Sub is considered an important link to the Port of Chur-chill.
“The feeling was that if nothing changes at Churchill, we would not need the CN Tisdale Subdivision,” Brayley said.
“But after the announcement by the Canadian government that they were going to (change) the wheat board and … (invest) in Churchill to grow and expand it, there was an internal decision that we should retain the Tisdale Sub as an alternate route.”
Brayley also suggested that CN would work with the HBRA to reopen other sections of the Tisdale Subdivision.
