Is the 13 tonnes per year a mis print Ben? Seems low for a 180000 tonne ship.

Drop in the bucket for that size of ship.

13 million tonnes. Nice $400 million investment. Great deal for our province. Good to see the unions (legitimate blue collar guys) thwarted the ndp and the fairies down south on this one.

Good for Rupert. 25 more families have a bread winner jobs. Doesn’t seem like much, but its huge for a community at the end of the line.

Spectra will soon get their shipping port in Rupert too, and thats gonna be another 25 families.

Before you know it 300-400 families make a living because of Ports.

WTG guys, keep it up.

Can our current rails handle all this extra traffic or will they be double tracking??

Who are the fairies down South, and how did the unions thwart them?

my2cents2
they were caled trolls…just want the status quo…
all the shipping on the wet coast was out of Vancouver. Rupert is direct competition to shipping. Some would see this expansion as infringement on their rights to own the business, thu the trolls.
Other of us would see this as an investment in money to expand he shipping, and grab some of the dollars……

Fiberals hate being called “Fairies”!

CN is already double tracking from Rupert to Prince, laying down new Chromium CWR and conforce concrete ties to handle the additional load. (CWR=Continuous Welded Rail for you non-railway folks). No worries handling the load and will make the trains much quieter.

As usual BS baffles brains.

CN is not double tracking from Prince Rupert to Prince George. What they are doing is putting in longer sidings so that these trains can pass with less effort.

There are a number of people around who have short memories (or none). It was not too long ago that CN tore up all the rail in thier long sidings, and sent the rail to the Illinois Central Railway in Chicago to upgrade the IC. This was a decision made by the ex CEO of CN Rail Hunter Harrison, who has been touted to be a very smart individual. Hmmmmmmm.

They thought they did not need the long sidings anymore because of the closure of
Quintette and Bull Moose coal mines in Tumbler Ridge.

In the sixties and seventies, eighties BC had the above mentioned coal mines, plus, the huge Granisle, and Bell Copper mines at Granisle BC.

With the (small) increase in coal now being developed in Tumbler Ridge, and the 5 year Contract with a coal mine in Wyoming, plus the (short term) container traffic, CN Rail now needs this siding capacity.

With the potash, coal, and containers, there is a good chance that Pr Rupert could get back to the tonnage they enjoyed in the sixties, seventies and eighties.

However the Wyoming coal, once the contract expires could return to US Ports, the Container traffic could see a major downturn once the widening of the Panama Canal is completed in 2014.

So in the highly competitive business of import, export business anything can happen.

If they didnt need double tracking in the seventies and eighties when traffic was the same or more than it is to-day, why do they need it now??

Why are they not double tracking between Prince George and Red Pass Jct???

If they have over capacity, why do they route all the traffic from MacKenie, to Williams Lake through to Prince George, then to Red Pass, and then to Vancouver??? Why not send this traffic South on the BC Rail line. The answer of course is the fact that they are a monopoly and they have no comprehension of customer service, and by routing the traffic East from Prince George they get the benefits of the **economies of scale**

Have a nice day.

Red Pass Junction;
Met an old timer a few years ago who told a story about growing up there. It was a pretty lively place in its’ day. Until then, I had never heard of the place, looked for it the next time I went that way, basically just a road sign there now.
metalman.