Fairfax Joins Consortium To Buy Port Of Churchill and Rail Line

[KFRCanuk]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/omnitrax-churchill-rail-port-fairfax-1.4405219

 

Fairfax will be partnering with first nations to purchase the rail line and the port.

 

This is a pretty big deal here in Manitoba. It means that rail access to the Churchill will resume at some point  (2018 ? ). The rail line was washed out in some areas in 2017. All goods need to be flown into Churchill now.

 

This will be great for tourism and the communities that rely on the rail line.

 

More details about the port https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_of_Churchill

 

 

[StubbleJumper]

Not sure how ffh makes any money from this.

 

The federal government has been subsidizing the track, passenger service and the grain export terminal in Churchill on and off for the last 50 years.  The line and the rolling stock were bought by omnitrax who never seemed to make any money from it.  At some point in 30 or 40 years when climate change performs it's magic, the shipping season for Churchill will be extended (for non-canadian readers, the problem is ice is present for most of the year in Hudson's Bay), but then the railway will struggle because the ground will be frozen for less of the year. 

 

This purchase reminds me of locations in my city where a restaurant goes bankrupt and changes owners every year or two, resulting in certain sites having cycled through 7 or 8 different restaurants over the past 15 or 20 years.  Each successive owner thinks that the last guy was a bad manager and that he'll succeed where the last guy failed.  The truth of the matter is that the location is poor which drives bad economics for anybody wanting to operate a restaurant in that specific site.