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Originally Posted by CoryB
Actually of the projects that would in Winnipeg the only thing that would need to change is the location of the two mainline tracks and the spur line running to the south.
There is zero chance the maintenance yards, and all their jobs, stay in Winnipeg when the city and province are forcing the relocation. Worse with the province now pushing the agenda on relocation it is very likely the maintenance yards, the national training facility and everything else rail related other than the cargo transfer yards permanently leave the province.
Personally I am shocked that our governments are willing to spend six figures courting possible large employers (Amazon) and on the other hand are willing to spend ten figures or more chasing employment out of the city.
The rail yards all currently have two routes in. Any rail line relocation in Winnipeg means at best the yards would be left with one line access. I am certain the rail companies will deem that unacceptable. And is rail relocation just about the lines or the yards too? Anyone thinking that the north end yard is going to be some high value land when rail leaves is being ignorant of the larger issues at play in that area of the city. And the CN yard on Lag? What's next, asking Maple Leaf to permanently close their plant here so people in their seven figures houses don't have to live next to the smells of a generational industrial area? Of the three yards the one with the least challenges location wise in the Transcona yard but being realistic it has been heavy industry for such a long time it would likely qualify as what the Americans call a superfund site. I am not saying that makes it a hard "no go" but rather it is going to be a very long process of decommission the site and then rehab the site to the point it is available for reuse.
In the grand pie in the sky vision of people saying "relocate rail" all those businesses depending on rail would be relocated too.
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It makes zero sense to move the main track without moving the yards. The railways would never agree to that. All trains going through Winnipeg use the yards extensively for train dispatching, marshalling, maintenance, crew transfers, etc. It doesn't make sense to build a bypass, but then need like 90% of the trains to come in to the City for various reasons. It just doesn't work.
In the overall scheme, CN Symington Yard could likely remain where it is as it's already at the outskirts of the City. Would need to re-orient the main track routes to head southward along Plessis or something to bypass the City to the south. CN is probably easier to move as the only other yard they have is Fort Rouge, which is basically just an extension of Symington at this point. A holding location for trains. beyond that is serves no purpose. Via could remain and the old tracks/corridor used for transit.
The CPKC yards in the north end is the biggest driver of rail relocation. So moving that yard would be like step one.
To my earlier point about moving yards first. You would need to phase in a new CPKC yard somewhere, probably north of Winnipeg. And build the new core main track corridor along with it. CPKC would start moving operations from north end to the new yard and eventually decommission the old route entirely. Maybe they move the classification yard first, and leave the shops in the City. Then move the shops later. It's all about cash flow.
This is what the study will look to sort out. The $400k identified in 2016 or whatever it was, is peanuts. That will get you a napkin sketch in which you can start talking about it.
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