The centre, training CN employees across Canada, is the latest sign of the company's
commitment to the Prairies
WINNIPEG,
Sept. 9, 2014 /CNW Telbec/ - CN (TSX:
CNR) (NYSE: CNI) today officially opened its new employee training
centre in Winnipeg. The
100,000-square-foot facility is currently hosting 350-plus CN
students from across Canada every
week, with hands-on training for all key railway jobs.
Claude Mongeau, CN president and chief executive officer, said:
"The opening of this state-of-the-art training centre is a
cornerstone in CN's workforce renewal, which this year will see the
hiring of more than 3,500 employees across our North American
network.
"Our training campus in Winnipeg's Transcona neighbourhood - home to a major CN
mechanical shop for more than a century -- will enhance our
railroader training programs, and help us instill a strong safety
culture in our new hires and reinforce it among current employees
who are learning new skills or upgrading existing ones.
"The new Winnipeg training
centre is also a symbol of the key role that Winnipeg and Manitoba play in CN's network. Winnipeg is the hub of our transcontinental
network. All of CN's east-west, transcontinental traffic and our
north-south cross border traffic are funneled through the
city."
The new centre will offer courses for jobs ranging from
conductor to car mechanic, and from track supervisor to signal
maintainer. Employees will receive hands-on training in indoor
learning laboratories with equipment such as locomotive simulators
and dispatcher stations. Outdoor labs with dedicated rolling stock
and other equipment for field training will also be a key
focus.
CN has invested C$35 million in
the Winnipeg training campus and
continues to invest ahead of the curve in its Western Canada network to improve network
resilience to meet customer demand. As part of that program, CN
last year undertook a major program to upgrade to its Edmonton-Winnipeg corridor. At a cost of C$70 million, CN increased capacity on its
principal main line between Edmonton and Winnipeg by extending sidings, double-tracking
certain segments, and improving yards at Saskatoon and Winnipeg. In addition, CN spent C$30 million to improve its Prairie North Line, a
secondary line that runs parallel to and north of the company's
main corridor between Edmonton and
Winnipeg. The second line acts as
a detour route for the main corridor, providing flexibility and
resilience to the network.
CN plans additional investments in its principal Edmonton-Winnipeg main line to expand capacity this
year, as well as on expanding capacity on its Winnipeg-Chicago main line corridor.
CN has a continuing focus on employee training - it will
formally open a second centralized training facility next month for
United States employees adjacent
to its Woodcrest Mechanical Shop in the Chicago suburb of Homewood, Ill.
CN is a true backbone of the economy, transporting approximately
C$250 billion worth of goods annually
for a wide range of business sectors, ranging from resource
products to manufactured products to consumer goods, across a rail
network spanning Canada and
mid-America, from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans to the
Gulf of Mexico. CN - Canadian
National Railway Company, along with its operating railway
subsidiaries -- serves the ports of Vancouver, Prince
Rupert, B.C., Montreal,
Halifax, New Orleans, and Mobile, Ala., and the metropolitan areas of
Toronto, Chicago, Detroit, Duluth,
Minn./Superior, Wis.,
Green Bay, Wis., Minneapolis/St. Paul, Memphis, and Jackson, Miss., with connections to all points
in North America. For more
information on CN, visit the company's website at www.cn.ca.
SOURCE CN