(CBC News circulated the following on May 4, 2009.)
MONCTON — Moncton’s Industrial Rail Services has won a $100-million contract with Via Rail to refurbish a-quarter of the company’s passenger cars.
Dick Carpenter, the company’s president, said the contract will allow his company to add 185 employees to its current staff of about 30.
Carpenter said his company has been bidding on contracts to fix rail cars all over the world but this is the biggest contract yet.
“It used to be all the work was done by the rail companies themselves and that has changed. They farm it out all over North America,” Carpenter said.
“So it gives us an opportunity to do work for fleets all over North America and to bring equipment from Europe by boat and do it here.”
The work associated with the Via contract will be done over the next five years.
According to a federal government news release, one $98.9-million contract will renew all of Via’s 98 Canadian-built cars. The refurbishment is expected to give the cars an additional 20 years of life and make them more energy efficient.
A second contract, worth $5.8-million, will upgrade 21 cars in the 106-car fleet that will allow better accessibility for rail passengers travelling between Quebec and Toronto as well as Montreal and Halifax.
Return of rail to Moncton
The rail service has been a fickle companion for the southeastern New Brunswick city.
The city lost the CN repair shops in the 1980s, crippling the local economy.
Since that time, Moncton has diversified its economy and is now known as a retail centre in the Maritimes.
Moncton Mayor George LeBlanc said the city has come a long way in developing its economy since the CN shops closed. But he said this contract shows the city still has room for industrial growth.
“For a long time, the feeling was that rail work was a day in the past history of Moncton and here we are back again,” he said.
Company must now find workers
Chris Evers, a vice-president with Industrial Rail, said he needs to hire enough people to take on this major project.
“It probably defies all models of growth. We’re going from 30 individuals all the way up to 185,” he said.
Evers said they’re working with the community colleges and he’s trying to lure skilled trades people back from Western Canada.
He said the company also needs engineers, quality control experts and project managers.