Transport committee  Certainly our obligation and our expectation is that we're going to run the passenger trains on time, and we're contractually incented to run them on time. So if they are late we'll do whatever we can to get them back on time. That's not to say that every individual dispatch dec

Transport committee  As I mentioned in a previous answer, we can add a lot of freight now. We can put more freight on each train, and we can certainly run more trains. It's a double-track network between Toronto and Montreal, and it's equipped with very high-capacity, single-track networks on both si

Transport committee  It's a very interesting question. We're not time-competitive strictly between Toronto and Montreal. For conventional intermodal operation, where you take a truck off the road and put it on rail, you have to have a certain amount of running time and distance in order to run out th

Transport committee  That is generally correct, sir, especially the very high-speed types of operations: 240 to 300 kilometres per hour is a completely dedicated track. The one exception to that is in the northeast corridor in the U.S. between Baltimore and Washington and Boston, which I believe your

Transport committee  None that I am aware of, sir--none at what I would call the working level, people such as myself, in terms of developing any sort of project plan or outline of parameters of what it might look like. I'm sure there have been discussions at a high level in a general sense, because,

Transport committee  There's nothing more important to CN, or to any freight railroad or passenger railroad, than operating safely. Certainly the Railway Safety Act review that was carried out in 2007—their report was published in 2008—involved all players at that table. There were unions, the rail

Transport committee  Not so much from the perspective of those 56 recommendations, sir, but certainly to go any faster than we're going now in our key Toronto-Montreal territory for passenger trains would be a next step up in the class of track. That involves closer tolerances to the geometry and the

Transport committee  Sir, I don't have any cost data whatsoever to discuss with you. I know that's something the Government of Canada is working on with the governments of Ontario and Quebec. In terms of the environmental mitigation measures you mentioned, you're absolutely right: they apply not on

Transport committee  There's ample capacity for freight train operation in the Quebec City to Windsor corridor now, sir. We're presently operating about eight trains in each direction, and the heaviest portion of that is between Toronto and Montreal, plus some local freight. It's a double-track netwo

Transport committee  We are limited.... I wish I knew the exact number. I believe our freight speed limit is 10 miles per hour on the Fraser River bridge. So anything that would increase that would of course be a benefit. But again, you're operating through a congested terminal area from our Thornton

Transport committee  As you're probably aware, that trackage is actually owned by Burlington Northern Santa Fe. And the question of whether the government would or should make a priority for investment to improve passenger train of course is more a question for you, ladies and gentlemen, than for me,

Transport committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. We're very pleased to be here. Thank you for the invitation. I'll make my remarks very brief to maximize the time available for the committee's questions. At CN we are strong supporters of passenger rail operations in Canada as well as in the U.S. Here in