Expressway is another method of handling highway truck trailers on flat cars. Expressway trains began operating over the London Division between Detroit and Toronto following relocation of the Toronto Terminal from Lambton Yard. Opening on June 12, 2000 of a new permanent location west of Toronto on the Galt Subdivision at Hornby (Milton), and named Toronto (later, Toronto West). At this time service was extended west to Windsor and Detroit. It initially took up 25 out of 196 acres. (This land had been purchased for a new Maintenance of Way shop to replace West Toronto and John Street facilities. It never came about.) At this time the equipment had been changed to flat cars and re-named Expressway from Iron Highway.It was intended to further extend service to Chicago where an abandoned Amtrak yard was identfied as useful, however this never came about. Another new terminal, Toronto East, was later opened on the site of the former pool car shed at the east end of Toronto Yard. Detroit was closed in the Summer of 2004 following loss of the small downtown terminal located at the long-closed Michigan Central passenger station. Service was reduced to one train a day from Windsor to Toronto West due to low traffic and soon discontinued. Toronto East was served by one train daily primarily handling Hudson Bay/Zellers traffic was closed August 2010 due to high costs. Toronto West (Milton) to Montreal remained in use with twice daily service later reduced to once daily. Declining traffic demand and lack of any new inititive resulted in the end of Expressway effective June 1/2018.
132-31 engines 5833_9657 doubling over their train as a westbound GO train races past. Mile 26.7 Galt Sub. 10/31/2016 Daniel Odette
Portable ramps which are placed against end of flat car to load/unload trailers.
And thus TOFC came to an end in Canada. For some reason TOFC continues and even thrives in the US but not here.
I believe CP's Expressway operation was a effort to make CSX's 'Iron Highway' work after CSX decided it could not make it work.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
We had a very detailed thread about the recent form that Expressway took, how it was promoted, why it was shut down, right around the period of time that it was closed. There were interesting late details in that thread, and some discussions of models that 'might have' been used to preserve the service in some form.
The person responsible for marketing it in its last years was an interesting character; I'd hire him for a new venture in TOFC in a heartbeat.
Yes I recall the discussion . Just liked the picture so posted along with accompanying story . TOFC thrived a long time in Canada almost to the beginnings of the Diesel takeover. You would figure some would be on the Transcon route but no dice. C'est la vie
Is there still Trailer on Ferry service in British Columbia? Going on six years ago, I saw such service both ways on the Prince Rupert-Port Hardy ferry. The times we rode between Vancouver Island and the mainland, I did not notice such service, though buses ran between Vancouver and Victoria and between Vancouver and Nanaimo.
Johnny
Is there a significant difference in the history of "mainline"* TOFC/ containerization in Canada as opposed to the US? Greyhounds often posts about how progress of those in the US was stalled by the ICC, but did something similar happen in Canada? Or was it able to modernize as the technology developed?
For example:
*George W. Hilton had an article in Trains about containers in the North:
Plus this article on CN's container trains from Halifax to/ from the west:
CNR containerization
- PDN.
In my opinion Canada was at least as 'modern' as any country in working on intermodal systems -- remember that Steadman was a Canadian company to begin with. To my knowledge their Government didn't stifle innovation, but they suffered from the usual problems of being adjacent to the United States when it came to actually implementing hardware or services into an adequate or properly-growing market. (See LRC for a cautionary tale.)
There are detailed studies of some Canadian attempts, although I don't remember a 'festschrift' on the overall Canadian 'experience' separate from, say, general timelines of TOFC and intermodal technologies (which in themselves are highly valuable and interesting), and I would gladly read through any such material that someone here suggests or, better yet, links.
PDN ... keep looking.
TOFC isn't completely dead in Canada.
The Hudson Bay Railway and the Ontario Northland still operate TOFC on their Northern servies to Churchill and Moosonee.
10000 feet and no dynamics? Today is going to be a good day ...
Is there any impetus in Canada to tie the eastern and western provinces together economically using CN and CP? For instance, favorable rates or special service?
Overmod -
Well, for the "general timelines of TOFC and intermodal technologies" in the US we have David J. DeBoer's "Piggyback and Containers: A History of Rail Intermodal on America's Steel Highway"*. Maybe some Canadian fan group has gone beyond that to document and illustrate the Canadian experience. There are others, I think, but I'm not familiar with them.
*https://www.goldenwestbooks.com/product/piggyback-and-containers/
Do you happen to have a link to this thread?
Freelancer with an interest in N&W, SCL, and other 70s railroads
See for example "CP Expressway being shut down" from 2016:
https://cs.trains.com/trn/f/111/p/268587/3054945.aspx#3054945
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