VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA — Canadian National announced today an assistance package to help Kelowna Pacific Railway (KPR) finance track capacity increases and build a rail-truck reload centre for new business.
CN’s assistance includes new rail ties to permit KPR to transport cars weighing as much as 286,000 pounds, and financing to construct the new reload centre at Winfield, B.C.
KPR operates 104 miles of track in the interior of British Columbia. Its line runs from Lumby and Kelowna through Vernon to an interchange with CN at Kamloops, B.C.
KPR began operating CN’s Okanagan Internal Shortline in February 2000 and had increased traffic almost 20 per cent by year-end 2001. Its customers are primarily in the forest products, grain and industrial products industries.
David Edison, vice-president of CN’s Pacific Division, said: “KPR – like many of our short line partners – has done a good job of building new rail business. CN’s aid package will improve KPR’s ability to capture additional traffic. This is also good news for CN, because our short line partners are significant originators of CN traffic and key to our growth strategy.”
Edison said Canada’s rail industry is urging the federal government to join major railways and short lines in financing line improvements that will allow smaller rail carriers to transport greater volumes of freight more efficiently.
“Federal participation in short-line track capacity upgrades – one element of a more balanced national transportation policy in Canada – would make more such upgrade projects possible,” Edison said. “These line improvements will help to reduce truck traffic on highways, lower highway maintenance costs for governments, and generate new regional economic development.”
David Hanratty, general manager of the KPR, said: “Our local focus on regional rail shippers – what short line railways do best – has generated significant growth in traffic. CN’s assistance package, along with new measures we’re taking on our own, will assure a sound short-line carrier to serve the needs of shippers in the Okanagan Valley for years to come.”
KPR is a joint venture of KnightHawk Rail, a wholly owned subsidiary of KnightHawk Inc., and the New York & Lake Erie Railroad.
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, and Jackson, Miss., with connections to all points in North America.