FRA Certification Helpline: (216) 694-0240

(The following story by Scott Simpson appeared on the Vancouver Sun website on March 19.)

VANCOUVER, B.C. — CN Rail will spend $450 million on rail infrastructure projects this year in Western Canada as part of a $1.5-billion North American capital program, the railway announced on Tuesday.

“The big envelope here is $1.5 billion, of which more than $1.1 billion will be focused on track infrastructure,” CN communications director Mark Hallman said in a telephone interview.

“Of the three regions, the Western region is getting the larger amount here. Clearly this is an area where there is significant rail operations for us and also significant opportunity for growth going forward.”

The railway didn’t announce specific project details, but in a news release Tuesday said the money spent in WEstern Canada was to “maintain a safe railway and improve the productivity and fluidity of its network.”

Hallman said CN will be spending money on “basic maintenance” including replacement and upgrades to bridges, rails and ties, switching yards and extending sidings — notably in support of the new container terminal at Prince Rupert.

“The Port of Prince Rupert line, this new North American gateway, is important for us,” Hallman said, adding that CN has already been investing money to improve the flow of rail traffic along its northern port route.

Capital spending is down a bit from last year, when CN invested $1.6 billion in its system.

“Railroading is a capital intensive industry, and this is close to 20 per cent of our revenue.

“On an incremental basis, year after year, we are looking at improving the capacity of the system to handle traffic efficiently.

“We are also targeting to make our capital dollars work harder this year through better planning processes plus greater labour productivity owing to a recently ratified agreement with the Steelworkers that will allow us to make our cap ex [capital expenditure] dollars work harder.”

In other news involving CN, Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Environment Canada on Tuesday announced that the company faces one count under the Migratory Birds Convention Act and two under the Fisheries Act following a massive derailment that released oil into Alberta’s Lake Wabamum two years ago.

Last October, the Transportation Safety Board ruled that the derailment might have been prevented if a section of replacement track had been as strong as the rest of the track.

It is estimated that cleanup costs and compensation from that spill have already cost CN $110 million.

CN has been under close scrutiny in British Columbia since an August 2005 derailment near Squamish caused a chemical spill that killed thousands of young trout, salmon and other fish.

Earlier this month, a report tabled in the House of Commons indicated the number of derailments in 2007 was about average for all Canadian railways.