CN buys back three PQ railways and ferry service

MONTREAL — The three principal railway subsidiaries of the Quebec Railway Corp. have been purchased by CN Rail for $49.8 million. Also included in the deal is the purchase of QRC’s rail-freight ferry operation on the St. Lawrence River.

Under the transaction, CN is purchasing 540 track miles of rail line it formerly owned in eastern Ontario, eastern Quebec and northern New Brunswick, as well as a ferry service in eastern Quebec.

The yellow route is the new track and
ferry link acquired by CN from QRC.

The railways part of the agreement are the Chemin de fer de la Matapédia et du Golfe; the New Brunswick East Coast Railway (NBEC), which runs between Campbellton and Pacific Junction near Moncton; and the Ottawa Central Railway (OCR), which runs between Coteau, Que. and Pembroke, Ont.

The Compagnie de gestion de Matane (COGEMA) provides shuttle boat-rail freight service on the St. Lawrence River between Matane and Baie-Comeau, Que., and other ports on the North Shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence when required. The rail ferry has a capacity of 25 rail cars.

CN sold the rail lines to QRC in the late 1990s and has held a minority equity interest in the ferry operation since its start-up in 1975.

"The operations we’re buying are important to CN because QRC is our second-largest short-line partner, serving important customers at origin and directly feeding our main-line network," said E. Hunter Harrison, president and CEO of CN.

Excluded from the transaction are QRC’s Sydney Coal Railway Inc. subsidiary in Sydney, N.S., and its Chemin de fer de Charlevoix inc. (CFC) unit running east of Quebec City to Clermont, Que.