advertisement

---

Yesterday, Canadian National Railway Co. announced it renamed an underwater railroad tunnel between Canada and the United States the "Paul M. Tellier Tunnel" to honor the man who served as the railroad's president and chief executive officer from 1992 to 2002.

Opened in 1995 as the St. Clair Tunnel, the 6,100-foot-long structure runs under the St. Clair River between Sarnia, Ontario, and Port Huron, Mich.

Tellier envisioned the tunnel as a vital rail link for international commerce between Canada and the United States. Last year, transborder traffic — of which a substantial amount passed through the tunnel — generated 34 percent of CN's annual revenue.

"Renaming the tunnel is especially fitting because Paul Tellier realized his vision for CN as a truly North American transportation company by completing the tunnel and successfully extending the railroad’s reach into the U.S.," said CN President and CEO E. Hunter Harrison — who succeeded Tellier — in a prepared statement.

The tunnel can accommodate double-stack container trains, multi-level auto carriers, and other large rail cars and payloads. Before the structure was built, rail traffic had to be barged across the river.