Athabasca Northern Railway

Athabasca Northern Railway
Overview
Reporting markANY
LocaleAlberta
Dates of operation2000–2007
PredecessorCanadian National Railway
SuccessorCanadian National Railway
Technical
Length325 km (201.9 mi)

The Athabasca Northern Railway (reporting mark ANY) is a shortline railway in Alberta, Canada. Originally built as the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway between 1909 and 1925, the line runs 325 kilometres (200 mi) between Boyle, Alberta and Fort McMurray, Alberta. It eventually became part of the Northern Alberta Railway, which was jointly owned by the Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway, and it was closed in 1989.[1][2]

The line was reborn as the Athabasca Northern Railway in 2000 when it was sold to Cando Contracting.[3][4] By 2007, the track had deteriorated due to increased traffic, and the line was set to be abandoned.[5] It was re-acquired by Canadian National in December 2007, however,[6] and as of 2011, rehabilitation was underway. However, as it currently stands in 2023, everything south of Athabasca has been torn up with only a roadbed. There is a small section that spurs off of the Westlock subdivision that was once the Athabasca subdivision, but it only goes so far and is now a storage spur for CN. Anything past this spur however no longer remains.[7]

References

  1. ^ "Atlas of Alberta Railways: The Alberta and Great Waterways Railway". University of Alberta. Retrieved 21 October 2017.
  2. ^ "Atlas of Alberta Railways: The beginnings of the Northern Alberta Railways". University of Alberta. Retrieved 25 October 2017.
  3. ^ Cando Archived 2010-05-25 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ "ANY--Athabasca Northern Railway". Archived from the original on 2008-05-14. Retrieved 2007-10-11.
  5. ^ "Deadline for Alberta short line abandonment looms" (asp). Retrieved 2007-10-11.
  6. ^ "CN buys key link to Alberta oilsands". CBC News. 2007-12-24.
  7. ^ Bourgonje, T. and Diercks, S.A., 2011. "Rehabilitation of Canadian National Railway tracks servicing oil sands in northern Alberta; the Athabasca Northern Railway" (PDF). Arema. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 November 2015. Retrieved 24 October 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)