• Kettle Falls International Railway - Abandonment of Canadian Section

  • For the discussion of the various Class III lines owned and operated by OmniTRAX: ATN - Alabama & Tennessee River Railway; BRG Brownsville & Rio Grande International Railway; CTRW Carlton Trail Railway; CTXR Central Texas & Colorado River Railway; CRL Chicago Rail Link; DCC Decatur Central Railroad; FCR Fulton County Railway; GFRR Georgia & Florida Railway; GWRC Georgia Woodlands Railroad; GWR Great Western Railway of Colorado; IR Illinois Railway; KFR Kettle Falls International Railway; MJ Manufacturers' Junction Railway; NKCR Nebraska, Kansas & Colorado Railway; NSR Newburgh & South Shore Railroad; NOW Northern Ohio and Western Railway; PNR Panhandle Northern Railroad; PIR Peru Industrial Railroad; SS Sand Springs Railway; STE Stockton Terminal and Eastern Railroad
For the discussion of the various Class III lines owned and operated by OmniTRAX: ATN - Alabama & Tennessee River Railway; BRG Brownsville & Rio Grande International Railway; CTRW Carlton Trail Railway; CTXR Central Texas & Colorado River Railway; CRL Chicago Rail Link; DCC Decatur Central Railroad; FCR Fulton County Railway; GFRR Georgia & Florida Railway; GWRC Georgia Woodlands Railroad; GWR Great Western Railway of Colorado; IR Illinois Railway; KFR Kettle Falls International Railway; MJ Manufacturers' Junction Railway; NKCR Nebraska, Kansas & Colorado Railway; NSR Newburgh & South Shore Railroad; NOW Northern Ohio and Western Railway; PNR Panhandle Northern Railroad; PIR Peru Industrial Railroad; SS Sand Springs Railway; STE Stockton Terminal and Eastern Railroad

Moderator: Aa3rt

  by Jeff Smith
 
BoundaryCreekTimes.com
OmniTRAX, the American owner of the Kettle Falls International Railway which connects Grand Forks to Laurier, Wash., announced in March that it planned to discontinue all operations along the Canadian stretch of the line within the next three years. A spokesperson for the company confirmed May 27 that the Ministry of Transport has approved its plan.

Closing the line would force its two major users, Interfor Grand Forks and Pacific Abrasives & Supply Inc., to use trucks to ship their products to the south.

Approximately 70 per cent of Interfor Grand Forks’ product gets shipped by rail right now, mill manager Dave Parsons said last week. “It’s significant for us.” Parsons said that, typically, Interfor spends between $11 and $15 million to ship by rail – approximately 1,000 cars per year.
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Asked why the company is looking to offload the Kettle Falls International Railway, OmniTrax’s president Sergio Sabatini said in a statement that “the KFR is not a good fit in our portfolio of rail properties and we have updated our three-year plan changing its status to a discontinuance candidate.” Sabatini added that they would be look to sell the track before abandoning it. “We are currently in the process of speaking with interested parties and working toward the sale of the property to new owners,” Sabatini said.
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