CN has just broken its teeth in its attempt to overtake CP to become the first North American rail network with a continental anchor connecting Canada to the United States and Mexico, but the Montreal company has great opportunities ahead. expansion in northern Quebec, with the Qc Rail project to link Dolbeau-Mistassini to Baie-Comeau and the Grande Alliance project to build a railway line along the Billy-Diamond road, from Matagami to kilometer 257 , in Baie-James.
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Now that the saga surrounding the acquisition of the Kansas City Southern network has ended with the withdrawal of Canadian National (CN) and the conclusion of an agreement between the American rail carrier and Canadian Pacific (CP), it is time to CN to turn the page and move on.
That’s good news, since two projects for new railway lines in northern Quebec are the subject of feasibility studies and could very well open up new opportunities for the Montreal rail carrier.
On Tuesday, the promoters of the Qc Rail project announced that they had retained the firm SNC-Lavalin to carry out a feasibility study for the construction of a new link that would complete a rail corridor that would link central Canada to the port. in deep water from Baie-Comeau, by adding a section of 370 kilometers of railway line between Dolbeau-Mistassini and the North Shore.
The idea is to create a northern rail highway that would bypass CN’s already heavily congested network in the South to allow producers of fertilizers, wheat, mining and forestry products in Western Canada to move faster and directly. their loads to the markets of Europe, via the port of Baie-Comeau.
Initially, the promoters of Qc Rail, mainly economic stakeholders from the MRC de Manicouagan, wanted to build a rail link to the North, to promote the exploitation of mining deposits linked to the lithium battery industry, in particular zinc and carbon. graphite.
But we quickly realized that this new corridor could also become very useful for producers and exporters of raw materials in central Canada while allowing the establishment of a port logistics center in Baie-Comeau in the Bay of English.
The Côte-Nord already has two north-south rail links operated by the companies IOC and ArcelorMittal for their own needs. Preliminary estimates of the cost of building a third multipurpose link are $ 2 billion, an investment that could be partially absorbed by its main users.
James Bay Development
The other northern rail link project in which CN could find its account is the one that the partners of the Grand Alliance, namely the Cree Nation and the Quebec government, want to implement, which has established a memorandum of understanding aimed at ensuring development. strategic, predictable and sustainable of the Cree territory.
In addition to upgrading several access roads from different Cree communities to the Billy-Diamond road, which starts from Matagami and goes up to Radisson, in James Bay, the Grand Alliance is planning the construction of a railway line. connecting Matagami to kilometer 257, located further north, to provide access to the many mining companies that are established in the region.
The Grande Alliance is also planning to return the railway line between Lebel-sur-Quévillon and Chapais to service, a strategic section which is also part of the Qc Rail group’s development plan. In both cases, CN’s participation and know-how are obviously desirable.
The entire Grand Alliance project, overseen by the Cree Development Corporation, is estimated at 4.7 billion, an investment that should extend until 2050 and which will be financed in part by the companies that will benefit from the news. infrastructure put in place.
If the South has not been the Peru expected for CN, the North could very well give it the opportunity to increase its traffic and its efficiency in the management of its pan-Canadian network.
We have been repeating for decades now, since the hard time of colonization in the 19th century.e century, how important the occupation of the territory is in Quebec, but it is also necessary to maximize the utility of this territory and the two projects of new rail links are entirely in line with this perspective of strategic development.
Another great way to make better use of the territory we are trying to occupy would be to ensure a much more direct and fluid link with the North Shore by putting forward once and for all the construction of a bridge to cross the Saguenay between Baie-Sainte-Catherine and Tadoussac.
My most recent visit to this magnificent region, two weeks ago, made me wait more than two hours to cross the beautiful Saguenay River, from one side to the other. The North Shore deserves much better than that.
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