GIO Railway Shutters Service to St. Catherines, Ontario

GIO Railway's final train to St. Catharines, Ontario, shuffling boxcar loads of pulp from the USA as the crew prepares to spot the customer for the final time on Feb. 29. (Stephen C. Host)

The GIO Railway has operated its last train out of St. Catherines, Ontario, potentially ending nearly 150 years of rail service to the city’s downtown.

GIO Railway officials confirmed that the train, which began its run Feb. 29 and completed it March 1, was the last to operate over the N&ST and Canal spurs in the St. Catharines, Thorold and Welland areas, which total 12.5 miles. Located in the Niagara region between Toronto and the New York state border, these railway lines are currently owned by CN and under lease to GIO Railway. GIO Railway has stated for the record that the railway will be out of service north of Welland, at approximately Highway 406. It is expected that the lines will revert back to CN.

GIO Railway is shuttering the lines due to a significant reduction in traffic; the expense of track maintenance is not justified.

The company has four separate operations with shared crews. The three operations in Niagara have a total of 32.27 miles of track; the busiest is 30.37 miles, including the 12.5 miles being let go, and the other two are each approximately one mile long. The fourth operation in Tillsonburg has 28.5 miles of track.

GIO Railway moved its biggest customer in St. Catharines to another of its Niagara operations a few miles away, but there are four remaining customers: 

1. Dunn Paper, which transloaded pulp from U.S. mills to its plant in Thorold. It will be moving its transload and warehousing operation to the new nearby HOPA Thorold Multimodal Hub, which is also served by GIO Railway and CN.
2. Steelcon, a steel fabricating company. It stopped using rail service out of its St. Catharines site in 2021, but recently leased a facility that it will expand at 615 Rushholme Road in Welland, which is also served by GIO Railway and CN through their “Tube Spur” operations.
3. Kemira Chemicals of St. Catharines, which has not been able to re-locate and is scrambling for options. This company serves the paper industry by supplying non-hazardous paper chemicals such as Silica Paste. Plant Manager Drew Denton reported that the company had completed a nearly $1 million expansion in March 2023, including additional railcar spots to meet demand by customers, who selected Kemira for environmental and sustainability reasons, among others. Customers like Atlantic Packaging chose Kemira because of the expansion, as well as environmental factors. With this business, Kemira doubled carloadings to 30 cars per year, and further growth had been expected. Denton said he is in touch with area officials, including the Mayor, and will be considering options to continue rail service for the customers that remain, but that will likely require CN’s cooperation.
4. Trenergy Inc., which fabricates large boilers that are shipped as dimensional loads. It will also have to seek alternate service arrangements.

GIO Railway’s Tillsonburg operation recently returned 2.5 miles of redundant track at the end of the network to owner CN. There were no customers located along this track, which was used only for railcar storage. CN has advertised the line for discontinuance or transfer to local companies or governments following the Canadian government’s federal railway rules. It’s expected that the discontinuance process will follow for what remains of the Canal and NS&T spurs in both Thorold and St. Catharines, giving local officials and companies the opportunity to continue rail service, but CN may opt to provide service.

By shuttering portions of the Niagara and Tillsonburg track, GIO Railway will be improving efficiencies, as well as profitability.

In the meantime, with the HOPA Thorold Multimodal Hub just coming on line (see maps below), additional rail partnerships are expected in the Niagara region with GIO Railway well positioned to serve them.