Canadian Pacific Railway is considering selling part of its track formerly DM&E Railroad. The announcement comes just one day after announcing it wouldn’t expand the line into Wyoming's Powder River Basin. As SDPB's Cassie Bartlett reports, the company hasn’t officially decided to sell the track, but is exploring its options.
The Canadian Pacific Railway is accepting expressions of interest from other businesses to buy 660 miles of track of the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad network. Spokesman Ed Greenberg says the company hasn’t set a specific timeline for how long it will accept expressions of interest.
“It is based on the company moving forward to be a more competitive railroad and it’s part of our focus driving ongoing service improvement for our entire customer base. We felt the decision was required to make, to explore strategic options for this section of track and to see if there were any operators who were interested in potentially acquiring the property,” Greenberg says.
Greenberg says not expanding into the Powder River Basin and possibly selling part of the track are two separate decisions. The company cited a poor outlook for the future of domestic coal as the main reason for not continuing the Powder River Basin project. For South Dakota Public Broadcasting, I’m Cassie Bartlett.
