By Alice McFarlane

Canadian Pacific reopens B.C. rail corridor

Nov 23, 2021 | 2:11 PM

MELFORT, Sask. – There is still a lot of work to do as Canadian Pacific Rail (CP) resumes traffic on British Columbia lines.

CP announced it reopened its railway between Kamloops and Vancouver this afternoon.

Crews have worked around the clock after the Nov. 14 rainstorm in B.C., where nearly 200 millimetres of rain fell over two days.

Thirty locations across CP’s Thompson and Cascade subdivisions were damaged with 20 areas experiencing significant loss of infrastructure.

CP President and CEO Keith Creel said he was proud of the work done by the CP team.

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“Their extraordinary dedication, grit, and perseverance in the face of extremely challenging conditions are the reasons we are able to restore our vital rail network in only eight days,” Creel said. “The following 10 days will be critical. As we move from response to recovery to full-service resumption, our focus will be on working with customers to get the supply chain back in sync.”

Creel said CP will coordinate with customers and terminals to clear the backlogs as quickly and efficiently as possible adding collaboration across the supply chain will help get freight moving efficiently again.

CP crews were required to move 150,000 cubic yards of material to rebuild the damaged areas, equivalent to 10,000 tandem dump truck loads or 30,000 one-ton dump truck loads of earth, rock, and other construction material.

More than 80 pieces of heavy work equipment were needed for the repair project.

While the railroad may have reopened, there are still difficult days ahead for B.C. residents and businesses impacted by this event.

CP teams arranged food delivery to the Spuzzum First Nation, secured 10 portable generators to be delivered to the Cooks Ferry First Nation and arranged meals, milk and baby formula for the Boston Bar Food Bank.

Creel said the force and impact of the weather event was extensive and evolved from hour to hour.

“CP worked in partnership with the B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, Transport Canada and contractors to identify damage and priority locations to get highways and our network reopened,” he said.

Creel added CP is committed to continuing to support the recovery and to do their part to resume critical transportation services for the Canadian economy.

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alice.mcfarlane@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @farmnewsNOW