NIAGARA FALLS, Ontario — Canadian National Railway, Canadian Pacific Railway and provincial and municipal officials will mark the end of an era – and the beginning of another – at a special “spike-pulling” ceremony today at 10 a.m.
The ceremony will herald the end of freight trains transiting the city’s busy inner core neighbourhoods, including the municipality’s tourist zone. The sale of a major rail corridor formerly used by freight trains will help promote redevelopment of the city, relieve traffic congestion and improve road safety, and generate new rail efficiencies at an important international gateway for Canada-United States trade.
Canadian National Railway Company spans Canada and mid-America, from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans to the Gulf of Mexico, serving the ports of Vancouver, Prince Rupert, B.C., Montreal, Halifax, New Orleans, and Mobile, Ala., and the key cities of Toronto, Buffalo, Chicago, Detroit, Duluth, Minn./Superior, Wis., Green Bay, Wis., Minneapolis/St. Paul, Memphis, St. Louis, Jackson, Miss., with connections to all points in North America.
Calgary-based CPR is North America’s first transcontinental railway and the only transcontinental carrier with direct service to the U.S. Eastern Seaboard. Its 14,000-mile network serves the principal centres of Canada, from Montreal to Vancouver, as well as the U.S. Midwest and Northeast. Alliances extend the CPR’s market reach into Mexico and throughout North America.