CN Rail Relocates Calgary Yard to Rockyview

[Bigtime]

Choo choo!

CN leaves Calgary train yard for Rocky View facility
By Dan Healing, Calgary HeraldFebruary 4, 2010 2:06 PM

CN is packing up its Calgary train yard and moving it just northeast of the city to a new $100-million park at Conrich in Rocky View County.

In a news release Thursday afternoon, CN said the new CN Calgary Logistics Park is expected to open in 2013 and will consolidate most of CN’s Calgary yard operations.

The 272-hectare park is planned to include an intermodal terminal with room for customers to co-locate with CN and custom build their facility in place, CN stated.

The park will be designed to include a multi-commodity transload and warehouse facility, an automotive compound, and a liquid/bulk transload and distribution facility.

The site is a few kiloometres east of the Calgary Airport, on Township Road 250 and McKnight Boulevard, providing access to Stoney Trail and other major roadways.

“We are very excited about business prospects in Alberta and this investment in the Calgary area,” said Claude Mongeau, CN president and chief executive.

“This facility is part of our program to grow a network of logistics parks that provide seamless and efficient transportation and distribution capabilities for customers, linking their facilities across North America.”

Calgary is the third largest distribution centre in Canada and is becoming the logistics hub of Western Canada, serving a rapidly expanding market, CN said.

The park will be designed to allow easy expansion as the Calgary hub continues to grow.

The project will be subject to regulatory approval, including an environmental assessment and public consultation.

dhealing@theherald.canwest.com
© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald
Link

[DizzyEdge]

Where's CN's current yard?

[Deepstar]

I was in Conrich a few months ago, it seemed like alot of stuff was going on there.

Originally Posted by Bigtime

Choo choo!

CN leaves Calgary train yard for Rocky View facility
By Dan Healing, Calgary HeraldFebruary 4, 2010 2:06 PM

CN is packing up its Calgary train yard and moving it just northeast of the city to a new $100-million park at Conrich in Rocky View County.

In a news release Thursday afternoon, CN said the new CN Calgary Logistics Park is expected to open in 2013 and will consolidate most of CN’s Calgary yard operations.

The 272-hectare park is planned to include an intermodal terminal with room for customers to co-locate with CN and custom build their facility in place, CN stated.

The park will be designed to include a multi-commodity transload and warehouse facility, an automotive compound, and a liquid/bulk transload and distribution facility.

The site is a few kiloometres east of the Calgary Airport, on Township Road 250 and McKnight Boulevard, providing access to Stoney Trail and other major roadways.

“We are very excited about business prospects in Alberta and this investment in the Calgary area,” said Claude Mongeau, CN president and chief executive.

“This facility is part of our program to grow a network of logistics parks that provide seamless and efficient transportation and distribution capabilities for customers, linking their facilities across North America.”

Calgary is the third largest distribution centre in Canada and is becoming the logistics hub of Western Canada, serving a rapidly expanding market, CN said.

The park will be designed to allow easy expansion as the Calgary hub continues to grow.

The project will be subject to regulatory approval, including an environmental assessment and public consultation.

dhealing@theherald.canwest.com
© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald
Link

[mersar]

Originally Posted by DizzyEdge

Where's CN's current yard?

Sarcee Yard, which is in the SE by 50th ave.

They have a map showing the new yard here

[srperrycgy]

Thanks for posting the map link. The location described in the article made no sense.

[xAnderblaze]

Maybe this will spur a snowball effect and we will see CP do a similar thing

[fusili]

I love reading the comment section for articles like this. Most of the comments are grossly misinformed and reactionary. Confusion abound. Makes me appreciate this forum and the amount of knowledge that people have here on this kind of stuff. Anyways, I like the idea, just curious to see what the implications will be.

[srperrycgy]

Originally Posted by xAnderblaze

Maybe this will spur a snowball effect and we will see CP do a similar thing

CP already has an Intermodal yard, but moving one of both of their rail yards out of the city wouldn't be a bad thing.

[Dado]

I love the comments in that article about CN moving out of Calgary. Ya... they're building something that's about a square mile in size... I wonder where in the city they might find that kind of space.

CP's intermodal yard is already pretty much outside the city. There's enough room near it to build a new marshalling yard, but I'm not sure what benefit that would be to them or to the city. The city has grown around the Alyth yards and it's not like its removal would reduce the number of trains blocking nearby crossings.


At any rate, at least you guys have intermodal yards and the two Class I railways actually invest in their infrastructure. Ottawa-Gatineau - the capital - is [still] the fourth largest urban area in the country and has no intermodal yards. CP doesn't even have a presence while CN's is accidental and transitory due to them having bought the Ottawa Central shortline as part of a larger acquisition (i.e. buying back stuff they should never have sold in the first place).

[Policy Wonk]

Lets see a remediation report on the site before getting too excited, rail yards are quite often ecological disasters and in the US figure prominently on the list of superfund sites.

[mersar]

I don't think they are fully closing the existing yard though, if you read CN's media release they never mention anything about closing, just moving most services to the new facility. They also specifically mention they will continue to provide service to existing customers in Calgary. See the release here. So if they keep any of it open, no need to do full remediation until they tried to subdivide and/or sell it I'd bet.

[outoftheice]

From an article in the Sun it sounds like the fate of the Calgary yard is to be determined. The upside is that apparently this move will save the city millions in infrastructure costs.... Airport Trail tunnel anyone?

CN plans move out of Calgary
By MARKUS ERMISCH, Calgary Sun

Last Updated: 4th February 2010, 1:44pm

CN Rail is considering closing its Sarcee rail yard in the Foothills Industrial Park as it plans a new $100-million facility just outside Calgary.

The move could also save Calgary taxpayers millions of dollars.

“It’s going to be incredibly positive news for business and employees in terms of the Foothills industrial area,” said Joe Ceci, alderman for Ward 9. “They’ll be able to save time and money by not having those trains present.”

CN announced Thursday it is planning a new logistics park in Conrich in Rocky View Country just north of Calgary. The facility, close to southern Alberta’s major highways and the Calgary airport, is scheduled to open in 2013 and will house most of CN’s existing yard operations in Calgary.

“As part of our feasibility study, we’re looking at options for the current site, including possible sale or redevelopment,” said CN spokeswoman Kelli Svendsen. The study has been started, but Svendsen said she doesn’t know when it’ll be completed.

CN’s Sarcee yard has existed for approximately three decades.

Ceci has been the alderman for the area for about half of that time.

“It’s been a source of concern ever since I’ve been here,” he said, calling the yard and the tracks that feed it “a huge problem.”

The level road crossings of Barlow Trail and 52 St. especially have been the source of many complaints to his office, Ceci said, because they frequently caused long waits as freight trains cut across two of Calgary’s busier streets.

To deal with the problem, Ceci said the city had planned to put money into the budget to build a number of bridges to allow for traffic to move more smoothly.

Depending on the outcome of CN’s feasibility study, taxpayers may no longer have to foot that bill.
The tracks bisecting Calgary’s downtown primarily belong to Canadian Pacific Rail and are not affected by Thursday’s announcement.

“I don’t see that moving for probably 10 to 30 years,” Ceci said about the downtown tracks, noting that eventually, he’d like the CP tracks circle Calgary rather than cut right through the heart of the city.

Rocky View Country also welcomed CN’s announcement.

“An investment of this magnitude would bring substantial benefits to both the county and the Calgary regional area,” said Rob Coon, the county’s chief administrative officer.

[TETT2]

Do you guys know if CN was paying taxes? So when the move outside of Caglary, Calgary loses this tax base? I understand that it will redevlop etc.

[Riise]

Originally Posted by Dado

At any rate, at least you guys have intermodal yards and the two Class I railways actually invest in their infrastructure. Ottawa-Gatineau - the capital - is [still] the fourth largest urban area in the country and has no intermodal yards. CP doesn't even have a presence while CN's is accidental and transitory due to them having bought the Ottawa Central shortline as part of a larger acquisition (i.e. buying back stuff they should never have sold in the first place).

Actually, Calgary is now the fourth largest metro. Anyway, I think Calgary has much more strategic importance regionally than Ottawa does in their region.

Originally Posted by Policy Wonk

Lets see a remediation report on the site before getting too excited, rail yards are quite often ecological disasters and in the US figure prominently on the list of superfund sites.

Yup, I'd suggest cautious optimism.

Originally Posted by TETT2

Do you guys know if CN was paying taxes? So when the move outside of Caglary, Calgary loses this tax base? I understand that it will redevlop etc.

Considering it's industrial lands that will be recycled, I don't think it will be a hit and could end up being a plus when you factor in potential recycling.

[You Need A Thneed]

I imagine this will increase the traffic on the existing line (from their old yard to the new yard) How will that affect automobile traffic on 68th Street, 17th Ave, 52nd Street, 36th Street, and Peigan Trail where that line crosses those roads?

Would CN want to twin that line?

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by fusili

I love reading the comment section for articles like this. Most of the comments are grossly misinformed and reactionary. Confusion abound. Makes me appreciate this forum and the amount of knowledge that people have here on this kind of stuff. Anyways, I like the idea, just curious to see what the implications will be.

I just read through the comments on the Herald article. It seems like half the posters are totally confused and thinking that the article is talking about the CP Ogden yard and the tracks running through downtown.

Like most newspaper commenters they probably only read the headline and jumped to all their conclusions from that!

I see this move as being another strong step forward in solidifying Calgary as the prairie provinces hub for cargo and logistics. The proximity to YYC is a good thing.

[Doug]

This is mixed news.

Pro:
-don't have to build grade separations to maintain roadway mobility in Foothills indutrial
-possiblity to redevelop CN yards into something else, most likely warehouses as the site would not be all that attractive to any other use
-better rail infrastructure further cements Calgary region as commercial and transportation hub

Cons:
-as surrounding municipalities build their commercial tax bases their political power will increase and weaken Calgary's unicity municipal model which is one of its biggest competitive advantages

I think the city should annex this area as well as Cross Iron Mills and the business park around the Highway 1 - Springbank Road interchange.

[Wooster]

^ If fully agree.

[fusili]

The City has been pretty aggressive in trying to maintain a monopoly on commercial tax revenue, at least from what I heard. If I heard right, the City was doing whatever it could to prevent CrossIron Mills from developing in the M.D. of Rockyview (Rockyview County now) by not granting a water allocation to the mall. However, they eventually bought some water allocation off of some farmers (damn those agricultural allocations!) and was able to develop. But you bring up a good point, competition amongst municipalities in the Calgary area is a considerable issue and does have a lot of complexities. Inter-municipal planning is really an interesting topic.

[Riise]

Originally Posted by fusili

But you bring up a good point, competition amongst municipalities in the Calgary area is a considerable issue and does have a lot of complexities. Inter-municipal planning is really an interesting topic.

So very true. While a little competition is good to prevent complacency, having parts of regions competing with each other can have some terrible consequences for regions. Why did we even let these counties and MDs develop in this fashion in the first place? Instead of relying on competition, regions should focus on reaping the benefits of strategic spatial planning.