CN Bottlenecking at Fort Erie

[Junctionfan]

Good day all,

I just thought I would let you know what CN has done.

They have bottlenecked themselves at Fort Erie because someone in the operation department in their infinate wisdom decided to change somethings without compensating for the effects. Let me explain.

NS 369 has stopped coming to Niagara Falls Yard to do interchanges so now it does it in Fort Erie. CN drops cars of at Fort Erie for NS instead of NS taking up capacity on the Stamford Sub-that makes some sense; nothing wrong with that.

Because of the new running right agreement that has to do with NS interchanging via Montreal etc, CN trains 334 and 335 (normally as much as 150 cars long) has been combined in trains 421 and 422 (Toronto to Port Robinson (Niagara supply train) 422 returns to Toronto) and 338 and 339 ( Toronto to CSX Frontier (338 returns to Toronto)). 421 and 422 also combined with another set of trains (230 Buffalo to Aldershot and 231 opposite). Instead of getting rid of 1 really big train and making the existing trains smaller, they got rid of 4 trains to make 4 giant one. Now it get better for dispatch. 338 has been getting way too long so they have now a 338 and Extra 338. So 338 and 339 take care of 3 sets of trains 338 (155, 230, 334 and itself) and 339 (231, 335 and itself). Lately, 338 has been recieving an unusually amount of steel loads and picks them up at Fort Erie.

CN runs about a dozen trains through Fort Erie and CP runs another dozen as the CP Hamilton Sub junctions on the the CN Stamford in between Port Colborne and Stevensville at station sign Robbins.

Here is the problem, Fort Erie doesn't have a yard. It is double tracked with 2 sidings, 1 per line and the sidings are now being used as a yard. Yesterday, 5 trains including a CP train were all stuck and bottlenecked. NS was trying to switch the "yard", 2 CN trains had to wait including 154 (intermodal) which waited so long the crew timed out and the train behind it eventually did too. CP 256 was waiting to head to the U.S and waited for hours too. Sometimes, the interchange tracks aren't long enough to accomidate the set offs either.

What is CN doing? They say they are the number 1 railway in North America; I wonder what number 5 is like? The problem with CN is that they should have made an actual yard there or left it alone in the first place (they ripped it up). They don't use Niagara Falls Yard anymore other for just storage which isn't often so they need to rip it up and relocate the track and switches to Fort Erie. Port Robinson Yard isn't big enough to handle it so that is out of the question.

Well that's my beef with CN's new operation in Fort Erie; it doesn't work worth a damn at the moment.

[TH&B]

Why couldn't all this "action" happen at Niagra Falls yard, it's a little more out of the way of through freights? CN should also be setup with running rights so they could reroute over the bridge at Niagra Falls where the Amtrak crosses and use CSX Niagra Branch to get to the Belt Line when there is congestion at Fort Erie. But who knows why not.

Some old yard master guy many years ago told me he had worked at Fort Erie in the 1940's and he said he rembers having 8 sections of a regular train tied up in FE waitig to be switched out. Maybe those "good old days" are coming back.

[Junctionfan]

Unfortunatly, the Whirlpool Bridge is not in the greatest shape to handle the tonnage but with the increase costs with the upgrading and the rebuilding of the Stamford Sub, I don't know why they didn't just rebuild the bridge. I would get rid of Southern Yard and would have considered removing Port Robinson too and just make Niagara Falls Yard the big one plus the Grimsby Sub (double tracked). This way, the Stamford isn't used for anything but CN switching and CP interchange trains (maybe NS too) which would eliminate the political and community distain from the many crossings the trains foul when going through Niagara Falls. I would have sold the International Bridge to CP and built another line on the Belt line as a partnership with CSX for traffic interchanging at Buffalo or just drop all the CSX trains at Niagara Falls, NY for CSX to handle and let NS come up from Buffalo via NS and grab the NS interchange traffic themselves. I would have saved CN lots of money on track as there is only need for two yard really. Allanburg Yard which handles Abitibi-Consolidated and Hayes-Dana, and Niagara Falls Yard which is huge and unused. Port Robinson is too small for what CN wants it too be, Southern Yard is often too small for CP interchanging and Fort Erie Yard is already been ripped up. Spending money on a new bridge would have been alot cheaper by now.

[Anonymous]

Ever since Hunter took over CN has been running trains that are unnecessarily long, to the point where it just gets silly.

Another common problem CN has is they run trains that are to heavy for the power that is on the train.

Not a week goes by here where there's directional running with the CP in the fraser Canyon (all trains Westbound go on CN and all trains Eastbound on the CP) that a CN train will stall and a CP train has to bail it out, otherwise the entire line cloggs up.

They commonly run 120 car grain empties with a single unit, and of course when that unit breaks down who has to come and save the day? CP.

And it will never change, because CP has no choice but to help, otherwise the entire line is backlogged.

CN is like one giant leech.

[Junctionfan]

I don't know what the situation in B.C is but around here, they run trains that often occupy too many blocks and so dispatching gets a little sporty at times particularly when a 173 car train hits a hot box detector and fouls the only line.

CN runs too much stuff all at once which can not necessarily be helped but the problem is, the lines are for the most part single tracked and there is either not enough sidings, the length of the siding is too small, there are not enough cross-overs or all of the above. It also gets particularly interesting when the lift-bridge comes into play so trains have to often wait for 2 ships to leave or enter the lock before the bridge can come down which takes anywhere between a 30 to 80 minutes. Not to mention that CN has several slow orders on the tracks making running more difficult, it is no wonder why CN is having a hard time with the trains here. I would really like to know exactly how much money CN wanted to save and how much money they have actually spent to supposedly save this money. Sounds like creative lunacy to me.

[MP173]

They seem to be having their problems here in NW Indiana also. Heard a comment from a crew to another today that there "must be 8-10 trains between Penn and Stillwell." I assume they were dead. If that is so...how in the world would they get recrewed? I heard 454 this morning tie up at Stillwell, that is half way between Chicago and Battle Creek.

The trains seem to be long and the engines are few. Just wait till we get a little winter weather!

ed

[Junctionfan]

This is why I'm not happy with CN as a Canadian voter who wants to see more train traffic instead of truck traffic.

I don't know how CN can say that the business is doing better when right after they reduce their physical plant, they end up having to bring it back again. They removed the second track on the Stratroy Sub (London to Sarnia line) only to now have to put it back again. So after they payed workers to rip up the line, they pay workers to put it back instead of maintaining the line and only paying for maintainance.

CN supposedly wants to run a pair of roadrailers between Rutherford PA and Toronto plus a pair of coal trains between the Co-Steel plant in Whitby and likely Conneaut PA (BLE line interchange). Personally, I don't see how CN can run them as they don't have the physical plant nor the man power to do it.

I just can't see how CN has improved their business. They really are no better than when the Canadian government owned them.