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Yesterday, CN announced plans to lengthen two more sidings on its northern Ontario mainline later this year.

The Class I now expects to spend about $30 million to extend a total of seven sidings in the nearly 1,200-mile corridor between Toronto and Winnipeg; two additional sidings will be lengthened in 2012 for $10 million. CN's longer sidings program calls for extending 6,000- to 7,000-foot sidings to 12,000 to 13,000 feet in length.

“CN's mainline through northern Ontario is a critical link in our transcontinental network connecting central, eastern and western Canada,” said Keith Creel, CN’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, in a prepared statement. “The strategic investments in longer sidings will help to further increase our ability to process freight trains efficiently across this line, enhance network velocity and productivity, and improve the safety of operations.”

The northern Ontario mainline averages 14 freight trains daily and hosts two transcontinental passenger trains three days per week. The extended sidings will enable the railroad to maximize the benefits of its longer-train operating plan in mainline corridors, CN officials said, In addition, infrastructure improvements to date in northern Ontario support the highest average freight train speeds on the entire system — as high as 40 mph, they said.