CN has spent a lot of money on this project, and most of the labour and materials have been sourced from P.G. companies.
metalman.

Im sure you guys can see this coming too... More rail cars equal more Derailments.

Likely more important ... higher centres of gravitiy on those double decker units = more derailments .....

These types of trains have been around for some time. There is no reason to believe they would all of a sudden cause more derailments.

With CNs railroad locomotives running 24/7 , is hizzoner gonna declare the intermodal yard a no-idle zone? Air breathers wanna know.

Lately the news has been mostly about CP derailments, but of course CN is of greater concern to us here!

Hizzoner and the Premier should demand that CN electrify all its tracks in B.C. and stop burning many hundreds of thousands of tonnes of carbon based fuel annually!

The aimed for reductions in green house gas emissions will probably make electrification a requirement in the not too distant future anyhow!

hizzoner will be so focussed on the growth of the giant it is unlikely that attention will be given to the health and safety of ordinary citizens

Move the giant CN conglomerate out of the bowl and have all hazardous goods out of the bowl and give us our valley back.

Enjoy the good news while it lasts, Canfor has some bad news heading our way tomorrow!

well now, how many derailments do you remember involving containers of goods?......come on now, think hard?.....exactly.the numbers are very low. Yes, CN has had it challenges with derailments and yes we need to keep the pressure on them but lets take advantage of the opportunities here to help the north and north west grow. It is truly crazy that the government is talking of spending million to build more roads through the precious ALR lands of the coast. Why not push that traffic to Prince Rupert where the opportunities are really needed and wanted!!

I suggest that some people should do some research before they start to make inane statements about derailments, electric railways, engines running 24/7 etc;

(1) For at least the first year and maybe more there will be One (1) train per day from Prince Rupert going to the US Midwest. Trains will probably consist of 200 rail cars and 400 40ft containers. This train will spend not more than 4 hours in Prince George going East. There will be One (1) Train per day going West for the same period of time. So in effect there will be no pollution, no noise to speak of, and less trains and switching than when they ran 2 trains in each directions from Tumbler Ridge to Prince Rupert with coal.

(2) The lumber, woodpulp, paper, ore, scrap metal, etc; that the CN is trying to get into Containers to go to Prince Rupert is traffic that they are presently handling to Vancouver in rail cars, and therefore there should be less noise, and engines running around because most of this traffic (if they get it) will be handled to the reload facitilty by truck and loaded onto empty cars.

With the one container train in each direction for the next few years we will have less trains than we did 5 years ago, so its time for people to stop talking about an increase in business at the CN Prince George Terminal. In addition most of CN'S operation has been moved to the BC Rail industrial yard, so you actually have much less switching and noise on the First Avenue side.

(3) There will never be an Electric Railway between Prince Rupert and Edmonton Alta, nor will there be one between Edmonton and Vancouver, or across Canada or the USA in general. Maybe Ethanol, or Hydrogen, but not electricity. The Electric Rail Line between Chetwynd and Tumbler ridge on the old BC Rail Line to service the coal mines years ago, has been torn out, and will now be serviced by Diesel Locomotives.

(4) There is no new business in Prince George to go into these containers so it will be the same products that now go to Vancouver going to Prince Rupert BC.

(5) The latest announcement from COSCO (China Oversea Shipping Co.) is that they have 3 affiliates one of which is HANJIN Container lines and the plan is to service Prince Rupert on what they call their Butterfly Route. IE: Ships will go from China to Prince Rupert to Vancouver to Seattle and back to South East Asia. At the same time ships will go from China to Seattle to Vancouver to (maybe Pr Rupert) and back to South East Asia. Hence the terminolgy (Butterfly Route) What this means is that if there should be a derailment on the CN Line between Pr Rupert and Pr George the Container Ship will just go to Vancouver. Hanjin and the other lines will off load Cosco containers in Prince Rupert, and pick-up containers from time to time.

You are now beginning to see what this whole concept really entails, which is an overflow port at Prince Rupert to help reduce the congestion on the West Coast.
So that Container can be handled more efficiently to the American Mid-West. This whole container concept has never been and probably never will be about Prince George, other than using the available loads to fill containers to Prince Rupert. If the CN cannot come up with rates that are competative with rates to Vancouver then the traffic will continue to go to Vancouver.

Keep your eye on the ball, you are about to see why you shouldnt buy into the **Hype**

After spending 4 days in Rupert last week,I tend to agree with you Palopu Especially regards to the "hype"!
And sorry,but on the line to Prince Rupert,double stacked containers scare the hell out of me!!

Palopu are you saying CN is going to run diesel locomotives through the 17km of tunnel to Tumbler Ridge? If thats the case then its only a matter of time before we hear about the deaths from the carbon monoxide poisoning....

I also think we're about the see a real shortage of class 1 driving jobs in the PG region as a result of the new CN port option.

IMO it doesn't look like any of our politial leadership is planning in any way to take advantage of the new oportunities with the needed infrastructure vision (ie ring road & designated industrial zones north east of the city). It looks like we may already have lost ten years when we could least afford it.

Time Will Tell

Palopu: finger on the pulse, as ever.
metalman.

"There will never be an Electric Railway between Prince Rupert and Edmonton Alta, nor will there be one between Edmonton and Vancouver, or across Canada or the USA in general. Maybe Ethanol, or Hydrogen, but not electricity."

Nice to see you can predict with such accuracy. You do not even use a conditional phrase such as "there will likely never be" ... nor do you ever provide a rationale for that. Just because we can't run a short line in the hills around here does not mean that other countries, such as Switzerland, cannot accomplish the same feat and have been doing so for the longest time. So what is the reason we cannot accomplish this, other than a considerable infrastructure change investment?

You simply make statements which provide no rationale. Many people on here, including me obviously, have opinions and express them quite strongly at times, but at least most provide some sort of reason which might lead to an understanding of the position taken. You do that on occasion, but not very frequently.

Pal: Your doom and gloom predictions are so frequent and comprehensive that surely at least a few of them WILL come true, just by the sheer statistical probabilities alone. Then you can wave your victory banner and smugly proclaim to us uneducated pathetic sheep: "I told you so", and let your feelings of superiority wash over you. My money goes on the forward thinking people who are willing to put their necks out and take all of flack from the critics and still make efforts to progress...that's how our country was and will continue to be built.

Palopu...it is "fewer trains". Not less trains. I are right about this.

Finger on the pulse? I guess that is about the only place you can put it without getting into trouble.

Contrary to popular opinion my predictions are not **gloom and doom** they are just common sense. Without boring you to death hear is a fact.

There will be 500,000 TEU's (20 ft equivilant containers) going through the port of Prince Rupert for the first two years minimum. 500,000 TEU'S are the equivilant of 250,000 40ft Containers. One Container train with 250 Rail cars double stacked with 2 40ft Containers would haul 500 Containers. 250,000 divided by 500 equals 500 trains divided by 365 days per year equals 1.38 trains per day. I think that the CN prediction of hauling 250 rails cars per train is high, and of course the figure of 500,000 TEU"S for the first couple of years is probably high also, therefore One train per day in each direction would be pretty accurate.

Owl. If we were going to run electric trains you would think that we would have gotten off our butts years ago and did it. We have been running trains for over 100 years. We would much sooner sell our electricity to the good old USA for big bucks.

The coming thing in Diesel Locomotives is battery/diesel locomotives, that are cleaner locomotives, use less fuel, and do the same job as regular locomotives. These loco's have been sold to the Union Pacific Railway, the Norfolk and Southern Railway have some on order, and I suspect that eventually all rail yards in North America will use them in their switching terminals. If you want more information on these locos look up Railpower Technologies Corp.

Thank you for calling my opinion "popular"!

Hybrid locomotives? Better get Japan on the phone. They showed us how to build a better quality car. Why not locomotives?