A washed-out section of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) mainline east of Medicine Hat, Alta. has been reopened following an 11-day outage.
The reopening, which CP announced Tuesday, follows the reopening of the Calgary-based railway’s southern line between Lethbridge, Alta. and Swift Current, Sask.
With normal traffic routing resumed, CP said it plans to “work closely with its customers and supply chain partners to reschedule and expedite shipments that may have been delayed by the temporary outage.”
With its mainline out of commission since June 18, CP said it used its secondary network routes and detour routes on other railways to “minimize impacts to domestic and international supply chains.”
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CP now estimates a “majority” of its deferred shipments will be moved in its third fiscal quarter (Q3). The mainline closure is expected to cut into CP’s Q2 earnings by about 10-13 cents per share, the company estimated.
The closures came during what CP described as a “one- in 100-year rainfall event,” or as rare as one in 500 years at some locations.
The heavy rainfall which washed out track in southeastern Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan also led to substantial overland flooding, the closure of the Trans-Canada Highway and states of emergency in nine municipalities, CP noted.
