CANADIAN Pacific President Robert Ritchie announced on December 11 that major cost savings were essential if CP’s new eastern operating subsidiary St Lawrence & Hudson is to stave off the risk of sale or closure. Higher productivity and lower property taxes in Ontario and Québec have been identified as key issues, with up to 30% of the 4500 staff to lose their jobs.
SL&H agreed to sell its 174 km line from Mississauga to Owen Sound to Ontario Midwestern Railway on December 16. Services north of Orangeville had been suspended since December 1995. OM’s business plan is based on reviving freight traffic, but the company is considering a commuter service from the Orangeville area to an interchange with GO Transit.
- On December 18 CP offered its 291 km Sudbury - Sault Ste Marie line for sale, together with a 60 km branch from McKerrow to Espanola and Whitefish Falls. CP is confident that it ’can find a new operator who will maintain a reliable and low-cost regional link to the core network.’ o
