Churchill Facts

Churchill Corridor vs.
St. Lawrence Ports to Tidewater

Churchill is closer!

By rail: Canora SK to Montreal 2666 km
By ship: Montreal to Baie Comeau PQ                              724 km
Total 3,390 km
By rail:  Canora SK to Thunder Bay 1189 km
By ship: Thunder Bay to Baie Comeau PQ 2655 km
Total 3,844 km
By rail:
Canora SK to Port of Churchill		 1136 km
Total 1,136 km

Grain Exports through
the Port of Churchill 2004-2019

YEAR TONNES CWB GRAIN NON-CWB
2019 137,000    
2018 0    
2017 0    
2016 0    
2015 184,600    
2014 530,310    
2013 640,000    
2012 433,435    
2011 512,781 512,781 0
2010 658,948 603,352 55,596
2009 529,391 529,391 0
2008 424,388 424,388 0
2007 620,709 620,709 0
2006 488,754 384,162 104,592
2005  466,785 353,361 113,424
2004 400,010 360,510 39,500

Important Churchill Transportation Corridor Initiatives

Port of Churchill and Railway Line Improvements

The Governments of Canada and Manitoba have contributed $8 million for infrastructure improvements to the Port of Churchill and $40 million for improvements to the Hudson Bay rail-line. Railway operator, OmniTRAX Canada, has also committed to $20 million to this work. Work completed in 2009 has resulted in a 33% improvement on running times.

Keewatin Gateway Corridor Association

Special initiative driven by the HBRA to lobby governments of Manitoba and Saskatchewan to upgrade Highway 283 connecting Nipawin SK, and The Pas MB.  An upgrade of the highway is critical in allowing producers to better deliver grain directly to the HBR and the proposed producer car loading site at The Pas for shipment to the Port of Churchill.

The Pas Producer Car Loading Site

A producer car loading site and trans-load operation is proposed to be built at The Pas, Manitoba, which is the railhead of the Hudson Bay Railway. The grain handing facility will unload grain products from trucks to a storage facility and re-load grain onto rail cars destined for the Port, offering producers a new, more cost-effective method of moving product to tide water. (The Pas is only 220 kilometres from Nipawin). The site will also work to unload and distribute commodities (fertilizer) from the Port.

Importing Fertilizer through the Port of Churchill

The Port of Churchill is ideally located to import fertilizer due to its proximity to western Canada’s grain growing areas. It is estimated that western Canadian farmers use 2.5 million mt. of nitrogen and 1.2 million mt. of phosphate per year. Churchill’s first ever shipment of Russian fertilizer, produced by Acron and imported by Farmers of North America, arrived in 2007. Two additional shipments arrived in 2008.

Hudson Bay
Railway Map