Saskatchewan farmers are hoping for a speedy recovery to grain exports through the West Coast.
Rail crews have been working around the clock and have made progress in clearing mudslides on tracks in southern B.C. leading to the Port of Vancouver.
CP Rail plans to reopen its railway between Kamloops and Vancouver Tuesday.
Thirty locations across CP’s Thompson and Cascade subdivisions were damaged, with 20 locations suffering a significant loss of infrastructure..
To repair the railway infrastructure, CP crews:
Moved 150,000 cubic yards of material to rebuild the damaged areas, equivalent to 10,000 tandem dump truck loads of earth, rock and other construction material
Utilized more than 80 pieces of heavy work equipment.
CP says the challenge now will be clearing the cargo backlog.
Chief Executive Officer Keith Creelman says the next ten days will be critical to get the supply chain back in-sync.
Meantime, CN plans to restore ‘’limited’’ service on washed out tracks in southern BC Wednesday.
CN says the corridor between Vancouver and Kamloops will reopen to some traffic early Wednesday, barring any unforeseen circumstances.
APAS president Todd Lewis says this is an important time for grain exports but there is less to move to market due to the drought.
He says farmers are upset by the losses to flooding among producers in the lower mainland.
He also hopes grain shipments resume as quickly as possible.
