CN looks to Northern BC rail line expansion and staff hirings for Spring/Summer 2018

The CN Mainline is going to be a fairly busy work site this summer, as the trans continental railway launches what is expected to be a 100 million dollar infrastructure expansion from Prince George to Prince Rupert.

In an interview with the Prince George Citizen, Sean Finn the Executive Vice President of corporate services provided a glimpse of some of the work ahead this summer which will include the following elements to improve the transit times for freight to and from the Port of Prince Rupert.

Creation of longer sidings, including double tracking along many stretches of the corridor, with work crews already surveying property and clearing brush in those areas already pegged for the program.

As well, while they won't be double-tracking the entire network from east to west at this point, they will be connecting those sidings in close proximity to create a passing track.

Work is set to begin on a number of rail infrastructure projects across
the Northern BC CN Rail corridor this spring and summer

The railway is also involved in an intensive search for new employees, with hundreds of new train personnel needed and plans in place to base at least 60 new conductors at the Prince George rail yard

See Career listings for CN Rail here.

The hope is that with additions to rail lines, new equipment and additional staff in place, that CN will be able to maintain many of the delivery time lines that they have touted in the past as part of the advantage of using their vast network of terminals and port services across North American.

CN has been dealing with the fallout from an extended period of time where shipments, particularly in the grain sector, had come to a standstill, creating backlogs for transit out of port and leaving the nation's farmers with no ability to move their crops to global markets.

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Many of those issues have affected the Vancouver region, with CN looking to encourage its grain customers to make a better use of Grain terminal facilities in Prince Rupert and Thunder Bay, Ontario.

For more items related to Canadian National see our archive page here.


Cross posted from the North Coast Review