Canadian National, CP team up for Vancouver yard switching

CANADA's two leading railways, Canadian National (CN) and Canadian Pacific (CP), have agreed to jointly handle rail car switching at Vancouver's Deltaport container facility.

The railroads, which move 70,000 TEU a year through the Pacific Coast facility, have agreed to a jointly-owned division to manage switching operations. Switching was done in the past by a unit of Denver-based OmniTrax.

Railway officials said the new deal would streamline operations at the Robert Banks facility outside of Vancouver, a Reuters report said.

It said the railways reach Roberts Bank on a spur line owned by BC Rail, which the provincial government had put on the market as part of its effort to privatise the regional railway's freight operation in 2003.

The province is said to have removed the Roberts Bank line from the market after police alleged two provincial government officials had accepted bribes for providing confidential BC Rail documents to a lobbyist for privately held OmniTrax.