Western Labrador Rail Services, Inc. is a rail operation of Genesee & Wyoming Canada, Inc. created in 2010 by the combination of three

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$ ...

Arnaud Railway The Chemin de fer Arnaud, now Chemin de fer Arnaud Quebec (formerly ARND and CFA) (in English, the Arnaud Railway) is a private Canadian short line railway owned by Société ferroviaire et portuaire de Pointe-Noire (SFPPN) operating in the pr ...

, Bloom Lake Railway, and

Wabush Lake Railway The Wabush Lake Railway (formerly WABL and NLCL) is a short line railway operating in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The railway was built in 1960 from the Quebec North Shore and Labrador Railway to Wabush, initially called t ...

. The operation provides rail transportation services to mining companies operating in the provinces of

Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic Canada, Atlantic region. The province comprises t ...

and Québec,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. Consolidated Thompson Iron Mines opened the Bloom Lake Mine, just west of Labrador City, Newfoundland. The Bloom Lake Railway was commissioned to transport iron ore from the mine to a connection with the Wabush Lake Railway. The Bloom Lake Railway was constructed between 2006 and 2010. All of the railway, except the first , are located in Labrador. The Wabush Lake Railway began acting as a middle man, taking the Bloom Lake Railway trains, and transporting them to Wabush Junction for the

Quebec North Shore and Labrador Railway The Quebec North Shore and Labrador Railway is a private Canadian regional railway that stretches through the wilderness of northeastern Quebec and western Labrador. It connects Labrador City, Labrador, with the port of Sept-Îles, Quebec, on the ...

to transport to the

Chemin de fer Arnaud The Chemin de fer Arnaud, now Chemin de fer Arnaud Quebec (formerly ARND and CFA) (in English, the Arnaud Railway) is a private Canadian short line railway owned by Société ferroviaire et portuaire de Pointe-Noire (SFPPN) operating in the pr ...

. The Arnaud then takes the trains to the Consolidated Thompson's dock at

Pointe-Noire, Quebec Pointe-Noire is an unincorporated community in the Canadian province of Quebec. It is within the city of Sept-Îles in the Sept-Rivières regional county municipality and the Côte-Nord region of eastern Quebec. It is a shipping port and a ter ...

. Consolidated Thompson was purchased by

Cliffs Natural Resources Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., formerly Cliffs Natural Resources, is a Cleveland, Ohio-based company that specializes in the mining, beneficiation, and pelletizing of iron ore, as well as steelmaking, including stamping and tooling. It is the largest ...

. In 2011, Genesee & Wyoming began control of all of these operations on behalf of Cliffs under the name Western Labrador Rail Services. These operations form an isolated railroad network, as it does not interchange with any other rail lines on the North American network. On April 11, 2016, Québec Iron Ore, Inc. (a subsidiary of Champion Iron Limited and Resources Québec) purchased the Bloom Lake Mining Complex and Bloom Lake Railway infrastructure from Cliffs Natural Resources. The Bloom Lake Railway continues to be operated under contract by WLRS.

References

External links

Western Labrador Rail Services official webpage - Genesee and Wyoming website
{{Canada railways Genesee & Wyoming Newfoundland and Labrador railways Quebec railways