Canadian Fires and the Canadian

Are the fires in Canada likely to impact the Canadian route, or too far off?

Fort McMurry is in the NE part of Alberta,way up north of the CN and CP mainlines.
VIA would have reported service disruptions to the Canadian days ago.

Fort McMurtry is 497 miles away from Jasper, the equivalent distance between New York City and Toledo, or Charollette, or Wilmington. Would a forest fire in Toledo, Ohio put trains at risk in North Carolina or In New York City, or vice versa?

VIA is offering free transportation on the Canadian from Edmonton for residents of Fort McMurray.

http://www.viarail.ca/en/about-via-rail ... s-fort-mcm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The CBC is not shared on the US cable systems(or Dish/Direct TV sat systems),so if there are other fires in Alberta,
the US public is unaware of them...
CNN,Fox News and the Major US networks are covering the Fort McMurray fire due to the massive destruction
of the town and it's residents being displaced.

Is there a branch line from the CN/CP that reaches Ft McMurray to haul out the crude from the oil sands
or is all pipelined to the refinery ??

CN has the former A&GW/NAR line to Waterways (part of Fort McMurray that was apparently almost entirely destroyed) that was previously being used for CBR trains. Oil production has stopped, but the plants were not damaged.

Looking at Google Maps, it appears the line ends at a yard just SE of the city, but you can follow the contour of what appears to be an abandoned ROW from there into downtown Ft Mac. Did the line previously end there or did it continue north?

Link to yard area and former ROW off to NW: https://www.google.ca/maps/place/Fort+M ... 11.3803407

ETA: After further sleuthing, it appears the line from the yard to the Waterways area was ripped up at some point, and it may have ended there - it's hard to tell.

Back in the day....NAR had passenger service to Waterways and for a short period they even used a leased CPR RDC.

Eventually it was a Mixed Train service that ended in the 1980.

Backshophoss wrote:The CBC is not shared on the US cable systems(or Dish/Direct TV sat systems),so if there are other fires in Alberta,
the US public is unaware of them...
CNN,Fox News and the Major US networks are covering the Fort McMurray fire due to the massive destruction
of the town and it's residents being displaced.

Is there a branch line from the CN/CP that reaches Ft McMurray to haul out the crude from the oil sands
or is all pipelined to the refinery ??

You get CBC in Buffalo and Detroit...

Over the air near the border,you can watch,but since the start of "geo blocking" done in the US,a lost cause
in the broadband spectrum and Sat dishes/XM radio.

We're certainly getting off-topic......but I have Bell Expressview with a full range of US stations including all the network affiliates in Boston and Seattle plus specialty channels along with CNN, WGN Chicago, KTLA and WPCH Atlanta.

And I was surprised at the coverage NBC, ABC & CBS gave the fires. After the usual lead "Trump" story...it was onto Fort Mac.

Backshophoss wrote:Over the air near the border,you can watch,but since the start of "geo blocking" done in the US,a lost cause
in the broadband spectrum and Sat dishes/XM radio.

Last time I was at a friends house in Buffalo, Timer Warner carried it.

However, with that said, I know someone here in Portland with a Bell TV Dish; its weird watching CFTO from Portland...