Canada Transportation Act

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 accessibility of plan

  (2) The railway company shall make the plan accessible to the public by publishing it on its Internet site or the Internet site of an association or other entity representing railway companies.

• 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:Information to provide to Minister

  (2.2) The railway company shall, within 60 days after indicating in the plan its intention to discontinue operating a railway line, provide to the Minister

  • (a) an assessment of whether or not section 96 applies to the land on which the railway line is located; and

  • (b) a legal description of any land to which the assessment indicates section 96 applies and, in the form specified by the Minister, geographical information that would allow for mapping of the land.

• Marginal note:Discontinuance already indicated in plan

  (2.3) If a railway company has, on the day on which subsection (2.2) comes into force, a plan indicating its intention to discontinue operating a railway line, but the company has not yet made an advertisement under section 143 in respect of that line, it shall provide to the Minister the information referred to in that subsection before making the advertisement.

• 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:Declaration

  (3.1) The railway company shall provide a written declaration to the person to whom the railway line or the operating interest is being sold, leased or otherwise transferred, stating that the sale, lease or transfer is in compliance with section 96. It shall also send a copy of the declaration to the Minister.

• 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.