Rail traffic to start moving into Michigan

Local freight impacted by rail protests Thinking outside the box to get freight moving through Windsor. CTV Windsor’s Michelle Maluske explains.

WINDSOR — CTV News has learned Canadian Pacific and Canadian National Railways have inked a deal to get freight traffic moving through the Detroit rail tunnel.

This is in the wake of blockades that have shuttered rail traffic in Canada.

"We'll be able to pull it through the CP tunnel to Michigan and CN crews will take it in Michigan and try and get it to where it supposed to go," says Laura Hasulo, the leader for the Teamsters Rail Division 390.

Hasulo says the union knew the blockades would eventually affect them because they have traffic that comes right across the country.

CP officials responded to CTV News late Tuesday saying CN is not running any freight on their tracks in the rail tunnel, but Hasulo maintains they were training up until seven o'clock tonight to work in the rail tunnel.

Hasulo says Via Rail "shut down their track, they own the track leaving Windsor, we run on their track."

Via spokesperson Marie-Anna Murat said in a statement to CTV News on Feb. 13 that "following a notice from the infrastructure owner, CN Rail, that they are no longer in a position to fulfill their obligations under the Train Service Agreement between VIA Rail and CN Rail, VIA Rail has no other option but to cancel all of its services on the network."

Hasulo says Chrysler and Zalev Brothers depend on rail.

"We've got steel, we've got auto, we've got everything in this area," says Hasulo. That includes seed silos in Blenheim that are shipped on Canada's railroads.

LouAnn Gosselin, spokesperson for FCA Canada says they are "closely monitoring" the situation but as of Tuesday, there has been no impact on production at the Windsor Assembly Plant, nor any delays in shipments of finished vehicles.

Since the Feb. 13 decision to halt Via Rail service, Hasulo says they haven't had any layoffs of the 17 people who work for CN, in Windsor because "we had enough cars stockpiled here to still continue to service our customers here in Windsor."

Hasulo says due to the recent agreement to run freight between Windsor and London, she doesn't think there will be layoffs in Windsor.

That's good news for local Teamsters, who just came off a week-long strike, when all 3,200 train conductors and rail yard workers were off the job.

"Between the strike and now this issue, the blockades everybody knows how integral the railroad is to the economy and to our country," adds Hasulo.