City of Saskatoon to review rail line ‘interswitching’ in Canada Transportation Act

It apparently has been done only once before, but Saskatoon city administration will look into the possibility of “interswitching” a rail line between CN and CP.

A motion made by Ward 1 Coun. Darren Hill at Monday’s city council meeting, directing administration to examine the idea, was unanimously approved.

It will explore the possibility of what transportation director Jay Magus explained was essentially forcing one rail line to share another’s tracks.

During a meeting in September, responses from Canadian Pacific (CP) and Canadian National (CN) on sharing a rail line were presented to city council.

CP’s senior vice-president called it “fundamentally unworkable,” while CN’s public affairs spokesperson also said that company did not want to share a corridor.

Saskatoon’s transportation and construction GM, Terry Schmidt, said administration had not been pursuing rail relocation or sharing possibilities since then.

“However, we continue in ongoing and regular discussions with CP and CN officials. So one of the discussions is safety and traffic operations, rail safety, delays for emergency services and transit and those types of things,” he continued.

Hill  asked whether several subsections addressing interswitching within the Canada Transportation Act had been explored.

“This is an opportunity for us to continue to look at the removal of the CP line, and how we can accommodate the CP and CN movement of trains through (around) the city of Saskatoon,” Hill said.

Magus told council it had not, and that it “sounds very easy, but I’m sure it’s not.”

“I think there’s opportunity here that we haven’t completely pursued,” said Hill. “I’m not suggesting that I take the administration down a rabbit hole of no opportunity, but there’s components that we haven’t looked at yet, and I want to have that opportunity to review them.”

A report was also presented and approved for information by council outlining next steps in the development of potential rail overpasses within city limits.

Three locations — Preston Avenue, Marquis Drive and 11th Street West — will be placed on the Transportation Strategy Infrastructure list for future consideration. The cost of building the overpasses is estimated at $93.3 million.

Six other possible locations have been crossed off the list because of the impacts to private property owners.