Has anyone heard any talk about what may be in store for Searsport. The initial information highlighted the Searsport potential for Potash, but I haven't seen anything else. Did they take a look at what they could do and maybe rethink it, or did they look at it and decide since they now have direct access to St. John they can now just send the Potash there?
Railroad Forums
Canadian Pacific Returns to Maine
- Discussion of present-day CM&Q operations, as well as discussion of predecessors Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway (MMA) and Bangor & Aroostook Railroad (BAR).
Moderator: MEC407
Does anyone know where the CP TEC train covered during its recent visit. I saw some pictures from the Moosehead but nothing else.
That was pretty much it. East, and a return trip back west.
Avatar: NHV 669 at the south end of the "Pompy" in White River Jct., VT on 4/29/1993. Photo by Richard Roberg.
https://youtube.com/@NHVT_Productions
https://youtube.com/@NHVT_Productions
I was curious why CP paid such a high price for the CMQ ? Discovered CN wants to turn Halifax into the Prince Rupert of the east coast and also build another container terminal at Québec city QC. CP s getting beat up when it comes to competing with the CN. Also keep hearing CP has made or will make an offer for the NBSR.
Approval to be finalized in June pending complaints. Get out the Red paint.
Zeke wrote: ↑Sat May 02, 2020 11:36 pm I was curious why CP paid such a high price for the CMQ ?Fortress invested $55 Million into the CM&Q's track structure and grew the business so railway is worth much more than the MM&A was.
Zeke wrote: ↑Sat May 02, 2020 11:36 pm Discovered CN wants to turn Halifax into the Prince Rupert of the east coast and also build another container terminal at Québec city QC. CP s getting beat up when it comes to competing with the CN. Also keep hearing CP has made or will make an offer for the NBSR.CN has been very proactive since its privatization with gaining market position in the North American rail market while CP has not been mainly status quo. CP's management had to do something to better position the network over the line term. Will be interesting to see if CP goes for the QGRY's Montréal-Québec City line to possibly get into the port there also.
Railway Age on 4/28 had CP's Creel and his Vp operations in a live interview and Creel is very much interested in building the east coast business. He said 40 percent of his railroad is heavy haul bulk but he wants intermodal and a more diverse traffic base.
As of 5/4/20, STB has officially approved CP's acquisition of CMQ's US ops and in the process has also denied Pan Am's request for trackage rights. Also denied was MMA's Trustee request to postpone the transaction until all Lac Megantic related litigation involving CP is resolved.
STB's door for petitions to reconsider its approval of the transaction is open until May 26 and requests for stay must be filed by June 10.
STB decision effectivity date is June 18, 2020.
https://dcms-external.s3.amazonaws.com/ ... /50223.pdf
STB's door for petitions to reconsider its approval of the transaction is open until May 26 and requests for stay must be filed by June 10.
STB decision effectivity date is June 18, 2020.
https://dcms-external.s3.amazonaws.com/ ... /50223.pdf
CP asking for clarification of Decision 3 which stated that the sale would be finalized on June 18th. Decision 1 stated that June 3 would be the finalization date. CP wants to close on original date rather than doing it in the middle of the month. Too many accounting problems doing it this way. As an old accountant I can understand their request. We always hated to do two financials in a month.
After a quick petition by CP/SOO, the STB's official takeover date now revised to June 3rd as originally expected:
https://dcms-external.s3.amazonaws.com/ ... /50254.pdf
https://dcms-external.s3.amazonaws.com/ ... /50254.pdf
CP takes control of the CM&Q next week. What plans does CP have for track work on the line this summer? Any sign of materials or track equipment as of yet? Will a new intermodal train to be added in the short term? How will Searsport work into the system?
Thats a lot of questions that no one here has answers to...
About the only question you're going to get an answer to is
As for intermodal trains, Searsport, and any sidings, or trackwork targets for the year, we're all waiting to see it unfold.
About the only question you're going to get an answer to is
Any sign of materials or track equipment as of yet?As of yesterday 5/30, a LORAM rail grinder was on the siding in Jackman. Otherwise, CP hasn't been allowed to do anything legally. On the Canadian side, a small army of track equipment and material is collecting in Farnham, as reported elsewhere. The grinder has already done some work in Canada. Ties and rock work is apparently soon coming.
As for intermodal trains, Searsport, and any sidings, or trackwork targets for the year, we're all waiting to see it unfold.
CP's CEO Keith Creel was interviewed live by Railway Age 4/28 and said some new intermodal contract was starting mid year and he wanted at least the whole property hosting a 40 mph speed limit. So one would suspect a strong presence of MW men and material.
Zeke wrote: ↑Sun May 31, 2020 7:20 pm CP's CEO Keith Creel was interviewed live by Railway Age 4/28 and said some new intermodal contract was starting mid year and he wanted at least the whole property hosting a 40 mph speed limit. So one would suspect a strong presence of MW men and material.A few months ago CP advertised new domestic intermodal service to SJ, so IM is definitely in the works, but Saint John still has a LONG way to go before it becomes a major container port like Halifax. Right now it's only seeing 2 container services per week from MSC and CMA-CGM.
I'm more interested to see what will happen with Searsport. The facility itself needs new infrastructure if it has any chance of handling unit trains, but the line down from NMJ is in decent shape, it wouldn't need too much work for sustained 25mph speeds the whole way.
Also ,What ever happened to the contract NBSR/CMQ had for Kia autoracks?
CP is working on 'planting a steamship flag' in Saint John this year as Kreel puts it. I've been told its an existing carrier at Montreal moving to Saint John due to the draft restrictions in the St. Lawrence.
Searsport is having some designs made up to accommodate unit trains (you can imagine what that would look like). There are several ship-side bulk transfer operations directly from railcars, IE no storage medium such as an enclosed a-frame, a good example of this is Thunder Bay.
And funny thing about Thunder Bay... its the eastern most Potash terminal on CP, so wouldn't it be nice if they had something tidewater rather than again via the St. Lawrence.
Here is the info on Thunder Bay:
https://www.canpotex.com/our-business/l ... -terminals
The KIA contract was lost to CN right after Megantic, so CMQ never moved an auto. Glovis which is the logistics arm of Hyundai and handles auto moves, comes online September 1st and will use Saint John to distribute cars locally. Export/import is also being discussed. Fiat Christler also comes online July 1 but nothing mentioned yet this far East, also Toyota Canada business is coming online too (same story, no mentioned of Toyota coming east but one can assume they'd use SJ for local auto distribution).
All-in-all a lot in the pipeline, but track work is the first matter of business. Several gangs are working the Canadian side replacing ties. Ballast coming too but no mention yet of new rail, although they did run the grinder to reprofile in a lot of places. It is conceivable that CP will pull the life out of the CWR in decent shape, and upgrade the stick rail that is old or less than 115LB.
Searsport is having some designs made up to accommodate unit trains (you can imagine what that would look like). There are several ship-side bulk transfer operations directly from railcars, IE no storage medium such as an enclosed a-frame, a good example of this is Thunder Bay.
And funny thing about Thunder Bay... its the eastern most Potash terminal on CP, so wouldn't it be nice if they had something tidewater rather than again via the St. Lawrence.
Here is the info on Thunder Bay:
https://www.canpotex.com/our-business/l ... -terminals
The KIA contract was lost to CN right after Megantic, so CMQ never moved an auto. Glovis which is the logistics arm of Hyundai and handles auto moves, comes online September 1st and will use Saint John to distribute cars locally. Export/import is also being discussed. Fiat Christler also comes online July 1 but nothing mentioned yet this far East, also Toyota Canada business is coming online too (same story, no mentioned of Toyota coming east but one can assume they'd use SJ for local auto distribution).
All-in-all a lot in the pipeline, but track work is the first matter of business. Several gangs are working the Canadian side replacing ties. Ballast coming too but no mention yet of new rail, although they did run the grinder to reprofile in a lot of places. It is conceivable that CP will pull the life out of the CWR in decent shape, and upgrade the stick rail that is old or less than 115LB.