Shared Corridors, Strange Bedfellows: Understanding the Interface Between Freight and Passenger Rail

Just as road capacity is shared between freight and passenger vehicles, Canada’s rail network is shared between freight and passenger trains. How capacity is shared can have implications for public policy, due to potential congestion and delays and the potential traffic shift to public roadways. Policy decisions should aim to produce outcomes that are commercially reasonable while recognizing the benefits and costs of freight and passenger rail services.

This Executive Briefing presents an overview of the relationships between the main stakeholders operating trains on Canada’s rail networks: the railway companies and the passenger service operators.

The briefing is based on the proceedings of a panel on passenger-rail freight interface issues that took place at the June 11, 2009, meeting of the Centre for Transportation Infrastructure. It was supplemented with a review of documentary evidence and interviews with representatives of Canada’s four major passenger service operators and two Class 1 railways.