The Metishto River is a tributary of the Grass River, which is, in turn a tributary of the Nelson River, that ultimately flows into Hudson Bay. [1] Its headwaters lie "a short distance from the northwest arm of Moose Lake".
The river runs parallel to railway from The Pas to Churchill, for much of its length. [2]
In October 2018 a train operated by the Arctic Gateway Group derailed while crossing the river, releasing "liquid petroleum". [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
The Canadian Pacific Railway, also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), was a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway was owned by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001.
The Union Pacific Railroad is a Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over 32,200 miles (51,800 km) routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United States after BNSF, with which it shares a duopoly on transcontinental freight rail lines in the Western, Midwestern and West South Central United States.
The Canadian National Railway Company is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States.
CSX Transportation, known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad company operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates on approximately 21,000 route miles (34,000 km) of track. The company operates as the leading subsidiary of CSX Corporation, a Fortune 500 company headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida.
Via Rail Canada Inc., operating as Via Rail or Via, is a Canadian Crown corporation that is mandated to operate intercity passenger rail service in Canada.
Churchill is a town in northern Manitoba, Canada, on the west shore of Hudson Bay, roughly 140 km (87 mi) from the Manitoba–Nunavut border. It is most famous for the many polar bears that move toward the shore from inland in the autumn, leading to the nickname "Polar Bear Capital of the World," and to the benefit of its burgeoning tourism industry.
Hudson Bay Railway is a Canadian short line railway operating over 1,300 kilometres (810 mi) of track in northeastern Saskatchewan and northern Manitoba.
Montana Rail Link is a privately held Class II railroad in the United States. It operates on trackage originally built by the Northern Pacific Railway and leased from its successor BNSF Railway. MRL is a unit of The Washington Companies and is headquartered in Missoula, Montana.
The Huron Central Railway is a railway operating in northern Ontario, Canada. It is operated by Genesee & Wyoming Canada, the Canadian subsidiary of Genesee & Wyoming.
The Port of Churchill is a privately-owned port on Hudson Bay in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada. Routes from the port connect to the North Atlantic through the Hudson Strait. As of 2008, the port had four deep-sea berths capable of handling Panamax-size vessels for the loading and unloading of grain, bulk commodities, general cargo, and tanker vessels. The port is connected to the Hudson Bay Railway, which shares the same parent company, and cargo connections are made with the Canadian National Railway system at HBR's southern terminus in The Pas. It is the only port of its size and scope in Canada that does not connect directly to the country's road system; all goods shipped overland to and from the port must travel by rail.
The Keewatin Railway Company is a First Nations-owned shortline railroad that operates in northern Manitoba, between The Pas, and Pukatawagan. This is Canada's second First Nations railway, the first being Labrador and Northern Quebec's Tshiuetin Rail Transportation.
Englewood Railway was a logging railroad on northern Vancouver Island, Canada. Headquartered in Woss, British Columbia, the line ran 90 km (56 mi) from Vernon Lake, through Woss, and past Nimpkish Lake Provincial Park to Beaver Cove. It was the last operating logging railroad in North America. After 100 years of use, railway operations ceased on November 7, 2017, following a deadly derailment in April of that year.
The Lac-Mégantic rail disaster occurred in the town of Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, Canada, on July 6, 2013, at approximately 01:14 a.m. EDT, when an unattended 73-car Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway (MMA) freight train carrying Bakken Formation crude oil rolled down a 1.2% grade from Nantes and derailed downtown, resulting in the explosion and fire of multiple tank cars. Forty-seven people were killed. More than thirty buildings in Lac-Mégantic's town centre were destroyed, and all but three of the thirty-nine remaining buildings had to be demolished due to petroleum contamination. Initial newspaper reports described a 1 km (0.6-mile) blast radius.
The Hudson Bay Railway (HBR) is a historic rail line in Manitoba, Canada, to the shore of Hudson Bay. The venture began as a line between Winnipeg in the south and Churchill, and/or Port Nelson, in the north. However, HBR came to describe the final section between The Pas and Churchill.
Arctic Gateway Group LP is a limited partnership that owns and operates the Port of Churchill and the Hudson Bay Railway, which connects The Pas to Churchill, Manitoba. It was originally formed as a public-private partnership; with a fifty percent share held by Missinippi Rail, a consortium of northern Manitoba First Nations and local governments, and the private share split between Toronto-based Fairfax Financial Holdings and Regina-based grains company AGT Food and Ingredients. Fairfax and AGT transferred their shares of Arctic Gateway to OneNorth in March 2021, meaning that Arctic Gateway is completely owned by the local governments and Indigenous partners.
The Ponton train derailment, near Ponton, Manitoba on September 15, 2018, fatally injured train conductor Kevin Anderson, injured the train's engineer, and triggered a spill of diesel fuel.
Running parallel to the railway, mostly north of it, and beginning about sixty miles north-east of The Pas, is the Metishto River, and then the Grass River, and a continuous chain of waterways, a series of lakes linked together by rivers, until Split Lake is reached anu joined by the Nelson River.
The train that derailed had three locomotives and several dozen rail cars, some of which were carrying liquefied petroleum. None of the cars were "compromised," said company officials.
The train was carrying cargo including gasoline, liquid propane gas and butane, but there has been no indication that any of that has spilled or leaked.
A Transportation Safety Board investigator says beavers may have contributed to the train derailment in northern Manitoba that left one railway worker dead and another injured.
A Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) investigator revealed that beavers were likely a contributing factor to a train derailment near Ponton, Manitoba, that resulted in the death of a railway worker.
The engineer survived, but an autopsy report on Anderson said he bled to death after suffering "serious but survivable injuries."
On Saturday, there was a derailment on the line. Reports are that the train which went off the rails on a bridge crossing a creek had three locomotives and twenty-seven cars. It was carrying Liquified Petroleum. None of those cars are reported to be leaking.