I have seen the articles, but still don't see SJ being anything more than a niche player. All the money in the world won't change the tidal situation which severely limits when ships can and can't sail into the harbor and even after dredging, the main channel will still only be 10 meters deep at MLT. CN is always going to favor/prioritize Halifax where they can accommodate much larger ships, which is a day closer sail from across the Atlantic than SJ and where CN has considerably more rail/port/support infrastructure. CPRS in turn will always favor Montreal and keep in mind that any moves over the CPRS/CMQ route are going to require a 3-line haul (NBSR, CMQ & CPRS) to get anywhere of any significance, whereas all the other ports offer single line rail service options to the interior - which is another huge disadvantage. This is without even factoring in the large expansion at the port of Quebec City, where CN is teaming up with the operator on a project 4 times the cost/size of the SJ project, and where they can bring in much bigger ships without the tide and channel issues. Keep in mind that with all of its' terminals combined, CN only generates one container train a day to/from Halifax, so where is all of this new business going to come from?
Over the top, as arctic shipping routes open up. The market will exist for Chinese/South-East Asian made goods to land directly on the east coast, and not necessarily just domestic Canadian traffic, but also east coast US traffic.
Is it ever going to be comparable to the BNSF transcon across the southwest? No, but the potential would certainly seem to be there for enough traffic to sustain the Moosehead, and for that matter the Maine Central.