Comments on: Folks, it’s time to address the elephant in the room, and unfortunately, I don’t have good news. The rumours have been flying for months (years actually) and the inevitable seems like it’s now going to happen – the Southern Ontario Railway and the Goderich-Exeter Railway will not be the same once the leases end later this year. For the last 20 or so years the employees of the GEXR and SOR have worked very hard to service their territories and substantially increased business through innovative ideas and service plans. CN gave up this business in 1997/1998 and if history is any indication, these Shortlines have greatly improved customer service as CN was sorely lacking in such at the time. It is the GEXR an SOR employees’ hard work that made the railways successful and these are the folks that will be most affected by this – I give out a heartfelt apology to all of them and wish them well as this may not be an easy transition for everyone. Their livelihoods depend on this and, given this fact I’d like our members to refrain from wild speculation on what is to happen, trust me when I say this, even with this news we still don’t know for sure other than dates. Last week a letter was faxed/mailed to all affected customers, and area terminals in Ontario stating some very simple facts, and I’ll quote it verbatim – shorting irrelevant portions out, noting that this is the first public mention of this plan since it was rumoured some years ago, and furthermore, as of today, CN and GWRR have yet to issue any official press releases on the subject. As follows: “CN is pleased to announce that we will be assuming control of operations for the following rail lines: Southern Ontario Railway’s Hagersville subdivision effective September 18 2018. This rail line includes the following stations: Caledonia, Hagersville and Nanticoke. SOR’s Hamilton subdivision effective December 13 2018. this rail line includes the Hamilton rail station”And in a separate page “CN is pleased to announce that we will be assuming control of operations of the following stations on the Goderich-Exeter Railway (GEXR’s) Guelph Subdivision effective November 15 2018: London east, Thorndale, Kelly’s, St. Marys, Stratford, Shakespeare, New Hamburg, Baden, Petersburg, Kitchener/Waterloo, Breslau, Acton, Elmira, St. Jacobs, Galt, and Cambridge” Many of the employees of the SOR and GEXR browse this site and it is my personal opinion that CN is making a mistake – but it’s not our decision is it. There may be forces at work far greater than local managements control that are effecting these decisions. I simply wish all the best to those affected and hope that everyone is treated fairly, and with respect. As you go out to photograph these operations, I ask the same of our RP.CA members, to remember the livelihoods on the line and to give the same respect and distance, over time we’ll see what happens and what CN’s plan is. It will be business as usual until then… and only then will we know what exactly is to happen – as anything in the railway, until it actually happens, there is always the ‘subject to change’ rule that rings true. And for the youngins in the audience or those uncertain what this means: The Goderich-Exeter Railway will remain between Stratford and Goderich and Exeter as those stations are not mentioned in the notice above. The Southern Ontario Railway is expected to possibly survive in some capacity as the Esso switching contract at Nanticoke is separate to the lease, as is the Brantford Ingenia (Burford spur) contract, but we say possibly because this notice could greatly change circumstances for G&W. G&W will also retain Railcare Inc. in Hamilton as this was purchased in 2016. Everything else – get your shots.

By: jknott86

jknott86 — Thu, 13 Sep 2018 14:55:04 +0000

I had been wondering about Railcare. Thanks for the info.

By: Stephen C. Host

Stephen C. Host — Sat, 08 Sep 2018 21:59:19 +0000

Here’s an update from the G&W side of things, published in their three year plans for respective railways:

https://www.gwrr.com/railroads/north_america/southern_ontario_railway/railink-canada-sor-three-year-plan

https://www.gwrr.com/railroads/north_america/goderichexeter_railway/gexr-three-year-plan

According to this SOR will retain the Nanticoke end of things as predicted.

By: Stephen C. Host

Stephen C. Host — Sun, 27 May 2018 21:49:07 +0000

As I see it, a locomotive or car mover, trained employees with the correct certifications and licenses, agreements with CN to operate over their track, if needed. Sufficient liability insurance (this is the real killer, large railways including conglomerate shortlines have blanket policies that cover all their operations hence spreading the cost) and insurance requirements have only skyrocketed since Megantic..

Any operator (SOR, CN, etc) also have to pay these costs and also have a price for Ingenia to pay for all of this..

Ingenia’s already on the hook for track, crossing and signal maintenance – it can’t be cheap, there’s a boatload of crossings to deal with.

I really don’t know where it will go – if Ingenia was really cheap they’d have switched to trucks in 2015, but they didn’t, so we’ll just have to see what happens. They clearly value their rail service. Anything is possible, we’ll just have to wait and see.

By: Aaron Skillings

Aaron Skillings — Sun, 27 May 2018 19:23:52 +0000

So if Ingenia operated the Burford themselves then what would that require possibly? Wouldn’t they need something to move the cars. I wonder if there are any operators that could service them or if it’s more likely that they will switch to trucks? I wonder what’s cheaper/most likely to happpen. At the end of the day i will have to wait and see but it’s been stuck in my head for days now..

By: Stephen C. Host

Stephen C. Host — Fri, 25 May 2018 13:22:38 +0000

Aaron, Brad, these are all good questions, but remember, the Burford and Elmira are on privately owned spurs (Not CN owned) and it’s up to the owners to enter into a contract for service with an operator. They could also operate it themselves and hire the people to do it..

But you know, this costs money, so it’s anyone’s guess what happens. Just wait and see what unfolds, it’ll be interesting to say the least.

This is why “get your shots” rings true now.

By: BradKetchen

BradKetchen — Thu, 24 May 2018 12:09:07 +0000

And do you think CN will bother with servicing the industry at Elmira?

By: BradKetchen

BradKetchen — Thu, 24 May 2018 11:43:55 +0000

Aaron..or a firm like ‘Railserve’ that works the Suncor plant and interchange yard with CN here in Clarkson, Mississauga and typically does switching assignments.

By: Aaron Skillings

Aaron Skillings — Thu, 24 May 2018 02:03:17 +0000

I am somewhat concerned about the Burford Spur, if SOR is done for then the only chances for rail service seem to be CN (again) or ingenia buying a switcher of their own, but i wonder what is the most likely outcome. Will the Burford spur be overgrown by this time next year? hopefully not..

By: BradKetchen

BradKetchen — Wed, 23 May 2018 22:36:04 +0000

Another one bites the dust: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/huron-central-closing-1.4673423

By: BradKetchen

BradKetchen — Tue, 08 May 2018 14:51:12 +0000

I have to wonder CN’s modus operandi… I thought they wanted contracts to handle local traffic ie, as Steven pointed out at Clarkson Railserve for Suncor, and that they wanted to handle the port to port intermodal freight…a lot of which you see isn’t destined for Canada, but a shortcut (much like CASO [RIP] sub promoted) from port to port..to port… But essentially the big stuff. what is their interest in serving local industries? Maybe because of Metrolinx..like on the Oakville sub, understandable that CN crews have more knowledge/protocol…And GEXR but what’s the idea without speculation?