Keewatin Railway

Keewatin Railway
Keewatin Railway
Locale	Manitoba, Canada
Terminus	The Pas; Pukatawagan
Commercial operations
Built by	Hudson Bay Railway
Original gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Preserved operations
Reporting mark	KRC
Stations	14
Length	99 mi (159 km)
April 1, 2006	Reopened
Website
	www.krcrail.ca

The Keewatin Railway Company is a First Nations-owned shortline railroad that operates in northern Manitoba, between The Pas, and Pukatawagan. This is Canada's second First Nations railway, the first being Labrador and Northern Quebec's Tshiuetin Rail Transportation.

The railway company currently operates a line formerly owned by Hudson Bay Railway, and used by Via Rail passenger trains. Via Rail previously operated a twice-weekly passenger rail service between The Pas and Pukatawagan through an operating agreement with Hudson Bay Railway Company. This passenger service continues under a new operating agreement between Keewatin Railway Company and Via Rail, which still operates twice-weekly passenger trains (Numbers 290/291) through an agreement with the new company.^[1] These are mixed trains.^[2]

History

Keewatin Railway Company

Tippieskaw Creek

251

Pukatawagan

road link

Airport

Native Reserve

245

Mile 151.8

243

214

Kennedy Creek

179

158

127

CN Branch to Chisel Lake

open 1950s to 1990s

114

Optic Lake

Emerald Lake

west

Flin Flon Sub. to Flin Flon

Sherrit Junction

0

to The Pas

The rail line was originally the 185-mile (310 km-long) Sherridon Subdivision, between Sheritt Junction and Lynn Lake. This was part of the Hudson Bay Railway (HBRY) system, and Via Rail had operated trains between The Pas and Pukatawagan under an agreement with HBRY, but had suspended them from July 27 and August 2, 2005, because the Hudson Bay Railway line had become unsafe due to recent heavy rains in the area loosening the railbed.

On April 1, 2006, the Hudson Bay Railway sold the Sherridon Subdivision to the three first nations in the area, who now own and operate the railway. The First Nations-owned railway company received $4.9 million dollars in grants from the Government of Canada, $1.25 million from the Government of Manitoba and $500,000 from three First Nations communities (the Mathaias Colomb Indian Band, Tataskweyak Cree Nation, and the War Lake First Nation, who jointly own and operate the railway to this day) for the railway line purchase. The Federal Government has also given the three tribes up to $3.2 million for start-up fees and investments, which include the purchase of locomotives, railway equipment, transitional services, office equipment, and infrastructure work (maintenance) on the rail line. This funding comes from the Regional and Remote Passenger Rail Services Contribution Program administered by Transport Canada.