CN is planning double approximately 2.5 miles of track west of Prince George.
The work is part of $345 million the company is investing in projects across B.C. this year.
The B.C. investments are part of CN’s 2019 record $3.9-billion capital investment focused on enabling growth from all commodity segments, including consumer goods, grain, agricultural, forest, and energy products from all of our customers, safely and efficiently. Over two years, CN will have made a $7.4 billion capital investment.
“Prince George city council wishes to express its sincere appreciation to CN for this important investment into the safety and security of railway service in Prince George and across the province,” said Mayor Lyn Hall. “Prince George is a hub city at the confluence of rivers, roads, highways, and rails, thus investments in rail near Prince George directly benefit and enhance our city. Prince George is also a centre that provides supplies and services to most of the northern half of B.C., so the health of our railway system is critical to our current and future success. Our city greatly values our relationship with CN and looks forward to continuing our successful partnership long into the future.”
CN is currently deploying important safety enhancing technologies across its network, such as the Autonomous Track Inspection Program, Distributed Air Cars and Automated Inspection Portals. These innovations, combined with CN’s investments in locomotives, capacity, infrastructure, and train crews, will support the safe and efficient movement of our customers’ goods to their end markets.
“Following a record capital program in 2018, CN has been able to take on more traffic from different commodity sectors based on contracts with our customers,” said Doug Ryhorchuk, Vice-President of CN’s Western Region. “This year, CN is planning to invest even more than last year to continue boosting capacity and network resiliency and to meet growing traffic on our corridors across B.C.”
Planned expansion projects that will improve traffic fluidity in the Port of Prince Rupert and Port of Vancouver areas include:
- Construction of a new train passing siding in Port Edward;
- Construction of 2.5 miles of double track west of Prince George; and,
- Multi-year initiatives to increase capacity at the Port of Vancouver in collaboration with the Government of Canada and the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority.
Maintenance program highlights include:
- Replacement of approximately 115 miles of rail;
- Installation of more than 210,000 new railroad ties;
- Rebuilds of 38 road crossing surfaces; and,
- Other maintenance work on culverts, signal systems and additional track infrastructure.
CN’s B.C. rail network serves the West Coast gateways of Vancouver and Prince Rupert and major inland terminals in Surrey, Prince George, Kamloops, and Fort Nelson.