Genesee & Wyoming G&W Huron Central Railway (Shut down)

Genesee & Wyoming has announced it intends to discontinue operations between Sudbury and Sault Ste Marie Ontario over the next few months.

Here is a link to a news story from the Sudbury Star: http://www.thesudburystar.com/ArticleDi" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... ?e=1613812

Huh, that is disappointing. Hopefully the track is railbanked, or preferably rehabilitated entirely - Sault Ste. Marie had made noise a while ago about trying to get passenger service to the east, and it'd be a shame to see that possibility cut off entirely.

(The railfan in me wishes that CP Rail/Soo Line had kept the Duluth - Sault Ste. Marie - Sudbury line as a wholly owned subsidiary like the St. Lawrence & Hudson, and the economist in me thinks it could've made money from interchange with western lines, but it's too late for that.)

Finally some good news for railways in Nothern Ontario

It was a celebration of faith and persistence Wednesday as several dozen stakeholders gathered outside the Huron Central Railway to learn that much-anticipated work had started on the nearly 300-kilometre rail corridor between Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury. The federal and provincial governments, as well as Huron Central, a Quebec-based short-line railway operator, will be investing $33.3 million over the next four years to upgrade the deteriorating freight link. The federal government, represented by Bryan Hayes, Sault MP, and the provincial government, represented by David Orazietti, Sault MPP, are putting up $15M each while Huron Central, which services 26 regional communities and First Nations, is taking care of the remaining $3.3M. "This day has been a long time coming," said Mario Brault, president of Huron Central, which has been leasing the corridor from CP for over a decade, since 1997. "We have been pushing for government involvement in infrastructure improvement since 2006, and got nowhere until we announced (in June 2009) that it was no longer economically viable and we were going to abandon it." A working group of assorted stakeholders, chaired by Joe Fratesi, the city's chief administrative officer, and including assorted communities and industries along the route, as well as Essar Steel Algoma and Domtar, lobbied with the railway and bought time, as well as a $3M provincial and federal interim commitment, until the $30M capital investment was announced nearly a year ago. "We were not bluffing about pulling out," said the Huron Central president. "At the time (in the spring of 2009) there was no light at the end of the tunnel. Unless there was a significant commitment to upgrades we were gone." The problem with the deteriorating line was twofold: ever-decreasing freight volume and rail bed conditions that forced daily freight train conductors to throttle down to 16 kilometres per hour over more than half the route. "The Sault to Sudbury run currently takes about 13 hours and we're hoping to nearly cut it in half (to seven hours) with upgrades that should improve the speed of the train to at least (40 km/h) through the slowest portions," he said. Upgrades will essentially be to rail beds, including ties, ballast, surfacing, rail, and some bridge work. Contracts have been awarded to Swift Railroad Contractors and M’Anishnabek Industries

This is excellent news.

This might help pave the way for the proposed Passenger Rail Service by the Coalition for Algoma Passenger Trains.

The CAPT proposes the creation of a passenger train service (similar to the ONR's Northlander & Polar Bear Express)that would operate trains between Sault Sainte Marie, Sudbury, North Bay & Ottawa. http://captrains.com/?p=324

I hope there is some good news that will come the way of preserving the Ottawa Valley Railway line between Mattawa & Pembroke in order to ensure this East-West link, and to preserve a piece of Canadian Heritage.

Great to hear that the Huron Central line upgrades are moving forward.

It's deja vu all over again: ProgressiveRailroading.com

G&W: Huron Central Railway to halt operations

Genesee & Wyoming Canada Inc. announced yesterday that its Huron Central Railway (HCRY) will halt service on its 176-mile line from Sault Ste. Marie to Sudbury, Ontario, by year's end.

The announcement follows the "recent refusal of support" from Transport Canada's National Trade Corridors Fund, according to a G&W Canada press release.
...
The northern Ontario short line operates under a 1997 lease agreement with Canadian Pacific and serves major employers in the region, including Domtar, Algoma Steel and Eacom.

In 2010, Huron Central received federal and provincial funding toward maintenance and rehabilitation costs to keep the rail line running until 2015. During that time, the company contributed three times more than anticipated to keep the railway "safe and operational" through this year.
...

From Trains Magazine :

Huron Central Railway, the 179-mile Genesee & Wyoming short line between Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury, Ontario, has given employees formal notice that their jobs will be terminated with the end of railway operations on Dec. 18...

https://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2 ... of-layoffs

The basic gist of the article is that G&W is requesting 40 million in government money to keep the railroad operating through 2021. The railroad still carries over 12,000 carloads per year and serves some fairly large industries along its line, including Algoma Steel in Sault Ste. Marie.

Considering the line is being leased from Canadian Pacific, I wonder if CP would just buy back the Huron Central (or let the lease expire) to preserve those carloads. Maybe they could also build a transload facility in Sault Ste. Marie to further increase carload traffic. This is what CP has been doing with the CMQ, they could do the same with the HCRY.