As rail traffic ramps up on its BC North line, Canadian National Railway is building new sidings at Robin Creek and Moricetown.
The Montreal-based company expects freight trains on its Edmonton to Prince Rupert line will double to a million carloads a year by 2015. Three more sidings will be built in the Cariboo, Cedarvale and Exstew areas.
Keith Creel, CN’s chief operating officer, said in a release that the upgrades will help the company handle growing import-export traffic to and from the Port of Prince Rupert, interior B.C. and major centres across Canada and the U.S.
Creel also said CN expects to haul larger coal volumes from new and existing B.C. mines to Prince Rupert’s Ridley Terminals.
The terminals, a federal Crown corporation, are currently expanding to load 24 million tonnes of coal onto export ships per year—a doubling of current capacity.
CN spokesperson Mark Hallman said the new, longer sidings can handle trains up to 12,000 feet (3.6 km) in length.
Since 2004, CN has invested over $150 million to expand its BC North line.
