The new center offers training courses for jobs ranging from conductor to car mechanic to track supervisor to signal maintainer. Employees receive hands-on training in indoor learning laboratories with equipment such as locomotive simulators and dispatcher stations, as well as in outdoor labs with dedicated rolling stock and other equipment for field training.
“The opening of this state-of-the-art training centre is a cornerstone in our workforce renewal, which this year will see the hiring of more than 3,500 employees across our North American network,” said CN President and CEO Claude Mongeau. “Our training campus in Winnipeg’s Transcona neighborhood—home to a major CN mechanical shop for more than a century—will enhance our railroader training programs, and help us instill a strong safety culture in our new-hires and reinforce it among current employees who are learning new skills or upgrading existing ones. “
The new Winnipeg training center “is also a symbol of the key role that Winnipeg and Manitoba play in CN’s network,” added Mongeau. “Winnipeg is the hub of our transcontinental network. All of our east-west transcontinental traffic and our north-south cross-border traffic are funneled through the city.”
CN has invested C$35 million in the Winnipeg training campus and continues to invest “ahead of the curve” in its Western Canada network “to improve network resilience to meet customer demand,” Mongeau said. As part of that program, CN last year undertook a major program to upgrade its Edmonton-Winnipeg corridor. At a cost of C$70 million, CN increased capacity on its principal main line between Edmonton and Winnipeg by extending sidings, double-tracking certain segments, and improving yards at Saskatoon and Winnipeg. In addition, CN spent C$30 million to improve its Prairie North Line, a secondary line that runs parallel to and north of the railroad’s main corridor between Edmonton and Winnipeg. The second line acts as a detour route for the main corridor, “providing flexibility and resilience to the network.” CN plans additional investments in its principal Edmonton-Winnipeg main line to expand capacity this year, as well as on expanding capacity on its Winnipeg-Chicago main line corridor.
In October, CN will officially open a second centralized training facility for U.S. employees adjacent to its Woodcrest Mechanical Shop in the Chicago suburb of Homewood, Ill.