Canadian Pacific to completely own Detroit River Rail Tunnel for ~$312M
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://seekingalpha.com/news/3622856__;!!Iww4!0rEjoyZAZoFzz6oAPN2Lgy4W10ff6NJIpWkcikyFuIqTk8KgQFBYuno2FnBBr6rGr5DkKk6xHOOB-w$
Its amazing what CP has been accomplishing over the last last 8 or 9 years. With the acquistion of the CMQ this year, do they have something else in store for Detroit/Michigan? They seem to be doing VERY well in a time a pandemic is going on. Exciting and Long for CP.
I wonder what their plan is here. Are they going to enlarge it? Sell it at a higher price and build a new one? Or just keep the status quo. Not sure.
Now they can rebuild the tunnel allowing 20' 2" height. Instead trying to build a new portal. Which they had been trying for years. EHH shelved plans when he was CEO.
Yes, CP has done great things under the leadership of Keith Creel, and of late the stock valuation has reflected that.
I agree, they been doing tremendous over these last 5-10 years.
Considering that the tunnel consists of a series of tubes laid in a trench on the river bottom, expanding clearances to handle double stacks may be well nigh impossible short of a new tunnel.
You should talk to some CP employees before giving Hunter and Creel such glowing reviews.
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
I was half expecting the G&W to purchase the Short Line east of Montreal. Maybe they did put in an offer but lost out to CP.
SD70Dude You should talk to some CP employees before giving Hunter and Creel such glowing reviews.
I have a friend who was breifly a conductor in Western Canada. His description of the work environment was... Less then ideal. In additon, the state of a lot of the grain lines in Western Canada is quite poor. There are slow orders everywhere. CP has been hualing record grain traffic for the past few years. In my opinion, if CP doesn't do any preventive matenice, their infrastructure will break under the strain. While I do think that CP's recent acquisitions are great stratgic moves, they should spend a lot more money getting their current network up to standard.
I do agree with others that Keith Creel has done a great job growing business on CP over the past few years. It's great to see a Class I trying to expand their business, as compared to the near constant shrinking you've seen over the past few years.
The CMQ acquisition, and now the Detroit River Rail Tunnel acquisition shows that CP has a lot of money to throw around. I wonder if we'll see CP buying up more infrastructure assets in the future. Creel did say he's looking at the old CP line to Quebec City, now owned by G&W.
Probably a good move. But (and I am not an accountant) probably the purchase is considered a capital expenditure and its payments to the co-owner for usage charges were considered expenses. So, by eliminating that expense entry the operating ratio is improved......
One tube did have its clearances improved somewhat, but the full doublestack height could not be achieved. They are metal tubes with interior concrete linings to provide additional strength. Some notching of the liner was possible and carried out. Some years ago consideration was given to constructing a new single track tunnel with full clearance but financing was not in place.
John
CP, if you're listening, look at the Sherbrooke to Levis, QC line again.. CN in conjunction with partners is building a containerport in Quebec City. A similar port on the other side of the River (in Levis) would offer a shorter route to the US by way of Sherbrooke.. a real competitive advantage..
An article in the Windsor paper says that CP double stacks go thru CN's Sarnia tunnel. They also said that proposals to buld a larger Windsor tunnel have died for lack of financial support by the governments on either side of the border.
Is it possible that the CP acquision will allow CP in the future to build a parallel tunnel right next to the present tunnel ?. Could it be that the tunnel now owns a large distance each side of tunnel and CP could not get an easement from majority tunnel owner /? This certainly gives CP a much better position to improve / expand/ replace the current tunnel ?
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