Canada Transportation Act (S.C. 1996, c. 10)

Marginal note:Three-year plan

• 141. (1) A railway company shall prepare and keep up to date a plan indicating for each of its railway lines whether it intends to continue to operate the line or whether, within the next three years, it intends to take steps to discontinue operating the line.

• Marginal note:Public availability of plan

  (2) The railway company shall make the plan available for public inspection in offices of the company that it designates for that purpose.

• Marginal note:Notification of changes

  (2.1) Whenever the railway company makes a change to the plan, it shall notify the following of the change within 10 days after the change:

  • (a) the Minister;

  • (b) the Agency;

  • (c) the minister responsible for transportation matters in the government of each province through which the railway line passes;

  • (d) the chairperson of every urban transit authority through whose territory the railway line passes; and

  • (e) the clerk or other senior administrative officer of every municipal or district government through which the railway line passes.

• Marginal note:When sale, etc., permitted

  (3) Subject to section 144.1, a railway company may sell, lease or otherwise transfer its railway lines, or its operating interest in its lines, for continued operation.

• Marginal note:Continued operation of a portion of a line

  (4) A railway company that sells, leases or otherwise transfers a portion of a grain-dependent branch line listed in Schedule I, or its operating interest in such a portion, to a person who intends to operate the portion shall continue to operate the remaining portion for three years, unless the Minister determines that it is not in the public interest for the company to do so.

Marginal note:Compliance with steps for discontinuance

• 142. (1) A railway company shall comply with the steps described in this Division before discontinuing operating a railway line.

• Marginal note:Limitation

  (2) A railway company shall not take steps to discontinue operating a railway line before the company’s intention to discontinue operating the line has been indicated in its plan for at least 12 months.

• Marginal note:Community-based groups

  (3) Subsection (2) does not apply and a railway company shall without delay take the steps described in section 143 if

  • (a) the federal government, a provincial, municipal or district government or a community-based group endorsed in writing by such a government has written to the company to express an interest in acquiring all or a portion of a grain-dependent branch line that is listed in Schedule I for the purpose of continuing to operate that line or portion of a line; and

  • (b) that line or portion of a line is indicated on the company’s plan as being a line or a portion of a line that the company intends to take steps to discontinue operating.