CN derailment boosts lobby to keep northern N.B. line

People who want to save the CNRailline through northern NewBrunswick say the derailment nearPlaster Rock earlier this week showshow important it is to have a second rail line through the province.

A CN Rail train hauling crude oil, propane, butane and other goods derailed in Wapske at about 7 p.m. Tuesday, sparking a massive fire in some of the derailed cars that continuedto billow smoke into the rural area throughout Thursday.

CNRail will be using the northern linefor several days until the main line is repaired, a company spokesperson told CBC News.

Campbellton Mayor Bruce MacIntosh believes theincident will help his group lobby CN, as well as the provincial and federal governments,to keep the line from Campbellton to Moncton open.

"If they do have a problem on one line, then certainly this line that we have here in northern New Brunswick can certainly add to their other transportation link into Halifax. So Ithink this project is now going to be even more important than ever," MacIntosh told CBC News.

CN Railway has said it may be forced todiscontinue part of the Newcastle Subdivisionserviceby March,unless it can raise $50 million to repair its aging tracks.

The company is incurring annual lossesdue to declining traffic volumes and infrastructure costs and needs assistance to keep the 224-kilometre stretch between Catamount, just west of Moncton,and Irvco, about 32 kilometres west of Bathurst,operating, officials have said.

Bathurst Mayor Stephen Brunet sayshe's glad CN is able to use the northern lineto keep the freight moving through the province while the derailment is investigated and cleaned up.

"It points to the need forour rail beds to be upgraded and points to the need for this line to remain,so that in the event of anythinglike this happening again, it's there," he said.

For safety reasons, freight trains using the northern line will only be able to travel at 40 kilometres per hour along sections where the rail bed has deteriorated, CN officials said.