Canadian Pacific (CP) railway announced November 22 that it would reopen its railway between Kamloops, B.C., and Vancouver by mid-day Tuesday, November 23.
Crews have worked around the clock after the November 14 “atmospheric river” rain storm in B.C., where in some locations nearly 200 millimetres of rain fell over two days.
Thirty locations across CP’s Thompson and Cascade subdivisions were damaged, with 20 locations suffering a significant loss of infrastructure, says the company.
“I am extremely proud of the CP team. Their extraordinary dedication, grit and perseverance in the face of extremely challenging conditions are the reasons we are able to restore our vital rail network in only eight days,” says Keith Creel, president and CEO of CP. “The following 10 days will be critical. As we move from response to recovery to full service resumption, our focus will be on working with customers to get the supply chain back in sync.”
CP says they will closely coordinate with customers and terminals to clear backlogs as quickly and efficiently as possible. Urgent weekend work and flexible schedules at customer and terminal locations will be the key to successfully getting freight moving efficiently again.
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 or 30,000 one-ton dump truck loads of earth, riprap (rock) and other construction material
- Utilized more than 80 pieces of heavy work equipment
- Mobilized hundreds of CP employees and contractors from across the network
CP says they will also continue to work closely with local and B.C. authorities and Indigenous communities in the Fraser Canyon to coordinate the delivery of critical materials, equipment, food, and fuel.
