Both CN and CP pulled out of my hometown of Sherbrooke, Quebec about 15 years ago. In their place we have two excellent regionals (the Montreal, Maine, and Atlantic which operates the former CP Shortline) and the Genessee & Wyoming (which operates the line through Sherbrooke to Portland, ME.)
As I understand it, CN and CP pulled out at least in part due to insufficent on line traffic...that is certainly why CP's Quebec Central division is gone now. However, only 15 miles out of Sherbrooke, along the now abandoned Quebec Central route is a prospering paper mill in East Angus which has no rail access! Has either regional ever looked at salvaging that small portion of the QC to service that mill? You would think that the papermill owners (Cascades) would be providing some incentives or would at least warm to the idea of having rail access as having no rail access puts them at a competitive disadvantage with almost every other paper mill that does.
Maybe folks saw or heard what happened/is happening with all the New Page & other mills around WI and are afraid of something similar happening after spending capital $ to rebuild the infrastructure.
Dan
Cascades is a large company..one of the biggest in Quebec, and I suppose one option they might have is purchasing the 15 to 20 miles of track from East Angus to Sherbrooke and running it themselves. Doing so would give that mill direct access to every major center in Nortth America and over night access to ports as well. Maybe the cost of doing that is prohibitive...I don't know. But a paper mill without rail access seems bad to me...especially when their competitors generally do have direct rail access. I haven't seen anything written about this...when Quebec Central ceased operations in 2006 the whole thing was closed down when maybe that one small segment could have been salvaged. Maybe that was looked at...but nothing was every noted in the trade press. But one does read about MM&A and G&W aggressively pursuing on line business opportunites...to me that East Angus mill would be a prime target as they appear to be in expansion mode.
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