Quote:
Originally Posted by MonctonRad
Good to hear. 
I am a bit conflicted about all this. While port expansion in SJ is good for the whole province of NB, somewhat paradoxically port expansion in Halifax is actually better for Moncton. This is because of CNR. SJ is serviced by CPR which bypasses Moncton completely, heading instead through the state of Maine. |
That's not entirely correct, MonctonRad. CN does, in fact serve Saint John, on its Sussex subdivision from Moncton. Historically, CN and CP interchanged at Saint John. CP sold off its New Brunswick tracks in 1994. New Brunswick Southern Railway (an Irving company) now interchanges with CN at Saint John, and with CP in Brownville Junction, Maine.
CP has made it clear that its new "Atlantic Gateway", including Saint John and east coast US ports is a key part of its strategy to win back business from trucks now that it has the only railway that links Canada, the US and Mexico. It has committed to invest heavily in Saint John.
Not to be outdone, however, a couple of weeks ago CN announced the launch of its own new pan-North America service, called "Falcon Premium". It's a partnership between CN, Union Pacific and the Mexican railway Ferromex. CN claims its transit times between Canada and Mexico will beat CP (which has been rebranded CPKS).
Speaking to investors in Chicago last week, CN chief marketing officer
Doug MacDonald said that CN expects to grow its business by five per cent over the next three years, some 900,000 additional carloads and 450,000 containers. He described Halifax as one of CN's "crown jewels," where expansion projects are underway. He also said there are expansion plans in Saint John and Montreal.
Here is CN's "Falcon Premium" map, showing Halifax and Moncton among its major gateways.
Source:
Trains Magazine
You'll note the Sussex subdivision to Saint John on the map. You may also notice that the map seems to show active lines from Halifax to Windsor and Truro to Sydney. Both of these lines were sold off to short lines in the 90s and have been mostly dormant for the last decade. Whether this is a case of careless mapmaking, or whether CN expects to see them restored, I can't say.
On the subject of rail traffic from Halifax, it's true that CN was an early proponent of what is known as precision scheduled railroading, which essentially meant fewer and longer trains. PSR has largely fallen out of favour for a variety of reasons, including safety concerns and system congestion, so expect faster, more frequent trains. There are in fact several daily (or weekday) trains from Halifax and Dartmouth. On the Dartmouth sub (Windsor Jct. to Imperoyl), there is a pair (east and west) of general manifest freights, mineral (gypsum) trains, and autorack trains (from Autoport). On the Halifax side (Bedford sub) there are two stack (container) trains and a general freight that originates at Rockingham. Plus, of course, the lone remaining passenger train, of which Via runs three pairs a week.
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