Transport committee  Thank you for the question. I'd like to talk a little about crossing safety. My previous role at CN was as chief signal engineer. I'm intimately familiar with crossings, and they are one of the areas where we have substantial opportunity to improve safety, so I appreciate the op

Transport committee  I'll speak from the CN side. I'm not aware of any specific cost-benefit analysis using that long a timeframe and focusing on electrification versus the continued use of the diesel fuel alternative. As we mentioned before, we are focusing on alternative fuel technologies, and we a

Transport committee  No, I don't. I've ridden on the U.S. and European railroads a little bit. The fundamental driver in the European railroad system is passengers. They haul freight on their passenger lines. So the electrification there is fundamentally different. CN has no active plan to conver

Transport committee  It goes back and forth a little bit. Fuel is either our number one or number two cost driver for the railroad. I know that for CN, our fuel expense on an annual basis is well over $1 billion. It is a huge expense for the railroad. It's why we spend a lot of time and a lot of effo

Transport committee  I'll take a stab at that. The typical freight run in North America for CN is over 1,000 kilometres. That's a good run for a freight car. In Europe it would be, I would assume, less than about a third of that to go between major centres. So we have runs that are three times and m

Transport committee  Absolutely. And some of our lines go through territory where there is no source of electrification. In northern Ontario, for example, we had to put our own power in just to run our CTC and radio equipment. There is no commercial power readily available, so that adds complexity as

Transport committee  Fatigue and fatigue management are significant issues in any industry that operates on a 7/24 basis, and certainly that's the definition of the railroad. One of the best things the railway can do—and we strive very hard to do this—is to make sure our trains run on schedule and t

Transport committee  I really can't speak too much for the U.S. railroads. I know there's a lot of push for electrification on passenger lines. The northeast corridor is a good example, with Amtrak. I'm not aware of a lot of major freight traffic or freight roads or rights-of-way that are being elect

Transport committee  To Mike's point, the technology is there. There is a major investment requirement to electrify a piece of track. There are also the complexities that go with trying to operate some trains electrified and some trains diesel-powered. You can't just turn the switch one day and sudde

Transport committee  Thanks, Mike. I appreciate that. Mike mentioned his 30-plus years with CP. I have to say that with 34 years with CN, I'm a career railroader as well, and I certainly share his passion for the industry. Regarding environment and sustainability, from a modal perspective, the ra