Savage Alberta Railway , known as Alberta RailNet between 1999 and 2005, was a Canadian

short line railway In the United States, railroad carriers are designated as Class I, II, or III, according to annual revenue criteria originally set by the Surface Transportation Board in 1992. With annual adjustments for inflation, the 2019 thresholds were US$ ...

that operated in the province of

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

until late 2006.

History

Alberta RailNet was formed in June 1999 to purchase former

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN i ...

trackage running north from Swan Landing to

Grande Prairie Grande Prairie is a city in northwest Alberta, Canada within the southern portion of an area known as Peace River Country. It is located at the intersection of Highway 43 (part of the CANAMEX Corridor) and Highway 40 (the Bighorn Highway), a ...

Hythe Hythe, from Anglo-Saxon ''hȳð'', may refer to a landing-place, port or haven, either as an element in a toponym, such as Rotherhithe in London, or to: Places Australia * Hythe, Tasmania Canada *Hythe, Alberta, a village in Canada England * T ...

, Spirit River and Glavin. The company was owned by

North American RailNet North American RailNet, Inc., based in Bedford, Texas, was a holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produ ...

. The Swan Landing to Grande Prairie line was opened in the 1960s as CN's Alberta Resources Railway, whereas the Glavin – Spirit River – Grande Prairie – Hythe line was the former

Northern Alberta Railways Northern Alberta Railways was a Canadian railway which served northern Alberta and northeastern British Columbia. Jointly owned by both Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway, NAR existed as a separate company from 1929 until 19 ...

(ex– Edmonton, Dunvegan and British Columbia Railway), which CN purchased in 1981. In total, the railway operated 345 miles of lines. In 2005,

Savage Industries Savage may refer to: Places Antarctica * Savage Glacier, Ellsworth Land * Savage Nunatak, Marie Byrd Land * Savage Ridge, Victoria Land United States * Savage, Maryland, an unincorporated community * Savage, Minnesota, a city * Savage, ...

, through its subsidiary CANAC, purchased Alberta RailNet's assets from North American Railnet, and renamed the railway to the Savage Alberta Railway. On December 1, 2006, CN announced that it had purchased Savage Alberta Railway for $25 million and that it had begun operating the railway the same day. The locomotive engineers, conductors and assistant conductors who work on the former Savage Alberta Railway lines (now CN) are represented by Unifor and are members of Unifor Local 4001 and Unifor National Council 4000 Unifor National Council 4000.

References

{{Canada class 2 Defunct Alberta railways Companies based in Alberta Grande Prairie