Time to double track. We have a longer runway for the air traffic. We should be double tracking for the train traffic.

Palopu, over to you .... :-)

That corner must have snuck up on them.

Double tracking would only cost about $4 Billion Dollars from Edmonton to Prince Rupert. There would be no return on investment, because we only get about 3 150 car trains per day in each direction, and there is no reason to beleive that this amount will increase in the near future. (If ever)

Double tracking of course has nothing to do with the derailment, which was probably caused by a broken rail, or the rail was bent by the hot weather.

The fact that double tracking would cost billions, with no return on investment, means it wont happen, however if this was a Government owned Railway, supported by taxpayers dollars, then I could see the Government fat cats making a case for it, just like they did for;

A. The Airport Runway Expansion
B. The Boundry Road Cut-Off
C. The River Road Upgrade.
D. The performing Arts Centre
E. The ostentatious Police Station
F. The Wood Innovation Centre
G. The Community Energy System

Have a nice day.

i am waiting for their old saying....NO HARM,NO FOUL, NO ONE KILLED....and have government turn a blind eye...again!

LOL...Good One He Spoke!!!

A citizen reporter was threatened with arrest if he did not leave the area. When I was a kid, we had lots of fun pissing off the CN bulls.

CN DERAIL strikes again

I just wanted to correct Palopu on the number of trains running into and out of Prince George on the Fraser Subdivision(east of PG).

There are a minimum of ten trains per day leaving Prince George eastbound and another ten arriving westbound into PG minimum.The numbers fluctuate up from there depending on grain,coal and containers.These trains range in size from 6300ft to 12000ft. Usually around 9000ft.
The larger trains weigh in around 22000 tons.

Oh and also He Spoke there are no corners on a railroad they're curves LOL.


There has been talk of double tracking, but thats not likely to happen in the next ten years unless there is a huge increase in containers to and from Prince Rupert.

Glad the subject of rail service has been broached. Gus, Palopu, I believe you to are on the right track (no pun intended just convenient).
The rail lines should be double tracked, my reasoning follows.

We have a situation in PG where untold numbers of trucks are pounding out our highways and main routes. This is totally unnecessary. Almost all long hauls should be mandated to be on rail. We should not be having semi truck and trailer units haul even from Vancouver to PG. Any haul that passes through more than 2 towns should be on rail. The cars are already available to carry either the entire trailer or a couple of those container trailer units.

The saw mills and the pulp mills have no relocated since they were built, why are we still using a temporary measure to move the chips from saw mill to pulp mill? This should be a given. We should be abhorred by the act of pounding out our roads and burning millions of gallons of fuel when this should be railed. Just taking the chip trucks off the road would lessen the wear and tear on our roads, and open up more room for the tourists that bring money to and through our town. Most of the logs could be railed in from the outlying harvest areas. A dump yard up in that valley with a scale and we would not have to see many more long or short stake trucks competing for road space and pounding out the roads.

I know we will still need to use trucks for some hauls, but really, why is this not done. It used to be the way it was done, then we had cheap fuel and bigger trucks. Now we are running out of petroleum and the trucks are bigger than ever and our roads are suffering for it. Rail is designed for huge loads, our roads are not. If they were then we would not be suffering the pot holes and other roadway defects accelerated by the pounding from heavy trucks.

Forget about the "oh my, what about the truckers' livelihood?" They can do the short hauls to the spur line head, in-town runs, inter municipal runs or retrain to another occupation. Nothing is forever, especially a career. That is a very fluid thing. If one is not able to adapt, persevere and overcome, then maybe trucking is all they are capable of. I do hope they are not limited in such a fashion.

If the rail service use was increased like that, it would create employment within the rail sector while the trucking sector declines.

Wow Gus, I hope you renewed your fishing license :-)

CoastB. Your probably right on the number of trains in and out of Prince George, but I doubt if you have 10 trains per day from Prince George West. In any event the number of trains between Jasper and Prince Rupert is insignificant compared to the mainline. I doubt if they will ever twin the rail West of Prince George.

Loki. Railway historically are inefficient, especially when it comes to short haul trains. In fact they prefer to handle all the bulk commoditys such as :Potash, Grain, Lumber, Woodpulp, Coal, Sulphur, Containers, etc; These trains make them millions of dollars and are in effect not labour inntensive.,

Smaller trains and commoditys that require switching to and from industry on a regular basis, etc are labour intensive and the railways got out of that business years ago.

Another important factor for trucking is that it helps to keep the freight rates down, which is good for business. You seem to forget that CN Rail is a monopoly in the Northwest, and without trucking they would wreak havoc on local industry.

The system you have now is the best. Our roads should be designed to move both trucks and tourists.

Norh America cannot survive without trucks. There are in excess of 5 Million trucks on the roads at any given moment in North America. It takes 50,000 trucks per day to service the City of New York.

We can do without tourists, however we cannot do without trucking so get used to the idea.