I'm sure that given this whole Northern Gateway Initiative, people have been considering alternative routes to Churchill, with an obvious connector being the CN and short line route from Saskatoon/Warman to Hudson Bay, SK via Melfort as a viable alternative route for westbound traffic from Churchill, rather than having to boomerang back into MB to get onto either the westbound TCH route or Yellowhead? Looks to me that it would only need a few km of track from Crooked River to Hudson Bay, SK rebuilt, otherwise the tracks are all there and in use, at some level of service. And all CN trackage (or former trackage). A much better way to connect western commodities, goods, and people to Port of Churchill.
This would work well for passenger service, as eastbound VIA Canadian services could branch at Saskatoon before joining Churchill-bound services at Hudson Bay SK via Warman, either Humboldt or Prince Albert, and Melfort, before Hudson Bay SK, while westbound VIA Canadian services could branch at Melville, and proceed via Yorkton to meet Churchill-bound services at Canora, SK. Services could originate from Regina, too, before picking up the same route at Saskatoon.
Either way, this route would introduce some level of public transit to a relatively long list of towns, over a fairly wide area, each for Saskatchewan standards. This would catch Regina, Davidson, Warman, Rosthern, Prince Albert, Humboldt, Melfort, and Tisdale, as well as Yorkton on the Melville-Canora branch. Plus other small towns in east central Saskatchewan, one of the province's relatively more densely populated rural areas compared to say, Palliser's Triangle in the southwest and west central...
Another potential side benefit could be de facto local and regional service within and around Saskatoon, with services able to stop at commuter places like Clavet, Warman, and Aberdeen, as well as closer to the city centre, perhaps with a new station facility at the old Richmond sub (near Richmond Heights), as well as maybe a few local stops along the west loop that parallels Circle Drive starting south of Stonebridge up to Richmond and north parallel to Warman Road past Lawson up to Warman, then on to either Prince Albert or Humboldt...
As for CPKC interchange, if VIA ever runs on the old mainline again, access could be provided either by Regina-originating service to Saskatoon and onto Hudson Bay, or simply by running services to Churchill via Yorkton instead of Dauphin before Canora.
It's a little confusing with Hudson Bay, SK being the town where all these services would converge on the mainline from Winnipeg to Churchill, given that the service is ultimately bound for the sea at Hudson Bay, but it's a distinction without a much of difference, given that the only way on or north or down or whatever you want to call it is Hudson Bay itself.
I'm sure that more proactive minds than I have already considered this at depth, and I'm curious if anyone here has any perspective on the topic. Both from Manitoba and Saskatchewan, as we are in it together with the Hudson Bay line already.
Fortunately, this seems to be an area that both our provincial governments can work together on, which I hope comes as some reassurance to our friends in Manitoba that Saskatchewan isn't about to hold any damn referendum, no matter what fake AI news keeps pumping out.
Prev
Linear Mode
