Canadian railway CN expects to reopen the Kamloops-Vancouver corridor to some traffic early Wednesday as the region recovers from last week’s extensive flooding.
“The situation in British Columbia continues to keep our crews engaged as they work to bring critical sections of the railway back into operation,” CN (NYSE: CNI) said in a statement provided to FreightWaves. “Work progressed well over the weekend and we anticipate that the Kamloops-Vancouver corridor will reopen to limited traffic early on Wednesday, November 24th barring any unforeseen issues. We also remain in regular communication with our customers and stakeholders on our progress.”
CN continued, “The Port of Prince Rupert remains fully operational and is not experiencing any impact to port or rail operations related to the extreme weather events in southern British Columbia.”
Both CN and Canadian Pacific had their lines between Kamloops and Vancouver shut down since Nov. 15 after heavy rain brought floods and landslides. FreightWaves reported Monday that CP (NYSE: CP) would reopen its line between Kamloops and Vancouver on Tuesday. CP said it is seeking to clear the backlogs as quickly and efficiently as possible.
The Port of Vancouver still has 42 vessels at anchor as of Tuesday, including, among others, 11 carrying coal, six carrying containers and 16 carrying grain.
In an operations update on Monday, the Port of Vancouver said the Vancouver gateway “continues to experience disrupted rail and truck movement due to flooding throughout the Metro Vancouver and Fraser Valley regions,” although “significant progress on repairs were made over the weekend on both rail and highway infrastructure.”
FreightWaves reporter Nate Tabak contributed to this report.
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