Tshiuetin Rail Transportation Inc. is a rail company that owns and operates a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

regional railway In the United States, a regional railroad is a railroad company that is not Class I, but still has a substantial amount of traffic or trackage (and is thus not a short line). The Association of American Railroads (AAR) has defined the lower bound ...

that stretches through the wilderness of western

Labrador , nickname = "The Big Land" , etymology = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Canada , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 ...

and northeastern

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

. It connects Emeril, Labrador with

Schefferville, Quebec Schefferville is a town in the Canadian province of Quebec. Schefferville is in the heart of the Naskapi and Innu territory in northern Quebec, less than 2 km (1¼ miles) from the border with Labrador on the north shore of Knob Lake. I ...

on the interprovincial boundary. The company also operates a railway that connects

Sept-Îles, Quebec Sept-Îles ( Quebec French pronunciation : , French for "Seven Islands") is a city in the Côte-Nord region of eastern Quebec. It is among the northernmost locales with a paved connection to the rest of Quebec's road network. The population was ...

to Emeril. The company is the first railway in North America owned and operated by

Indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

, specifically by the

Innu Nation The Innu / Ilnu ("man", "person") or Innut / Innuat / Ilnuatsh ("people"), formerly called Montagnais from the French colonial period ( French for "mountain people", English pronunciation: ), are the Indigenous inhabitants of territory in the ...

of Matimekush-Lac John, the Naskapi Nation of Kawawachikamach, and the

Innu Takuaikan Uashat Mak Mani-Utenam Innu Takuaikan Uashat Mak Mani-Utenam is an Innu First Nations band government in Quebec, Canada. It is based in Sept-Îles in the Côte-Nord region on the North shore of the Saint Lawrence River. It owns two reserves: Maliotenam 27A and Uasha ...

History

Tshiuetin () Rail Transportation operates on the Menihek Subdivision, a rail line running from Emeril Junction to

Schefferville Schefferville is a town in the Canadian province of Quebec. Schefferville is in the heart of the Naskapi and Innu territory in northern Quebec, less than 2 km (1¼ miles) from the border with Labrador on the north shore of Knob Lake. It i ...

. The Menihek Subdivision used to be part of the QNSX main line, constructed between 1951 and 1954. After mining activity in Schefferville ended with the closure of the Schefferville iron mine in 1983, QNSX shifted its priority to the Sept-Îles to

Labrador City Labrador City is a town in western Labrador (part of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador), near the Quebec border. With a population of 7,412 as of 2021, it is the second-largest population centre in Labrador, behind Happy Valley-Go ...

line, and the Emeril Jct to Schefferville line had limited freight and subsidized passenger service for the remaining

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

communities in the region. By 2006, passenger rail service was considered by the Canadian government to be the only surface transportation mode available to and from Schefferville. Preceding the purchase of the Menihek Subdivision, QNSX was actively looking to sell off the rail line, but no other pre-existing railroad companies made purchase offers. Three local First Nation councils formed a single company to buy the line from QNSX. In 2004, Tshiuetin Rail was issued a certificate of fitness by the Canadian Transportation Agency, before the railroad acquired the Menihek Subdivision. The company took possession of the Menihek Subdivision "as is, where is". The company was to provide all passenger rail and limited freight service. The company will also provide passenger rail service on the remaining QNSX-owned line running from the port of Sept-Îles to Emeril Jct (and on to Schefferville). Tshiuetin Rail began operations on December 1, 2005, with the conclusion of an agreement between the three owners of Tshiuetin Rail and the owners of the

Quebec North Shore and Labrador Railway The Quebec North Shore and Labrador Railway is a private Canadian regional railway that stretches through the wilderness of northeastern Quebec and western Labrador. It connects Labrador City, Labrador, with the port of Sept-Îles, Quebec, on the ...

(QNSX), Rail Enterprises Incorporated and

Iron Ore Company of Canada Iron Ore Company of Canada (often abbreviated to IOC) (french: Compagnie Minière IOC) is a Canadian-based producer of iron ore. The company was founded in 1949 from a partnership of Canadian and American M.A. Hanna Company. It is now owned by ...

. Under this agreement, finalized in the fall of 2005, QNSX sold its Menihek Subdivision, for the nominal sum of $1. The agreement between IOC and the three First Nations who own Tshiuetin Rail has resulted in the first aboriginal ownership of a railway line in Canada. This railway (along with the QNSX line,

Chemin de fer Arnaud The Chemin de fer Arnaud, now Chemin de fer Arnaud Quebec (formerly ARND and CFA) (in English, the Arnaud Railway) is a private Canadian short line railway owned by Société ferroviaire et portuaire de Pointe-Noire (SFPPN) operating in the pr ...

, and Wabush Lake Railway) form an isolated railway network, as it does not have a physical connection with the North American rail network; however Compagnie de gestion de Matane operates a rail ferry service connecting to Sept-Îles.

In media

The importance of the line is documented in

Caroline Monnet Caroline "Coco" Monnet is an Algonquin French Canadian contemporary artist and filmmaker known for her work in sculpture, installation, and film. Early life and education Monnet is a multi-disciplinary contemporary artist and filmmaker based ...

's 2016 short film '' Tshiuetin''. On July 6, 2020, Chloë Ellingson of

the New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

published an extensive pictorial essay on the railway.

References

External links

*
Map of the QNSX and Tshiuetin Rail Transportation lines

Rail Lines of Northern Quebec

Rail Lines of Labrador
{{Canada railways Newfoundland and Labrador railways Quebec railways Passenger railways in Newfoundland and Labrador Passenger railways in Quebec Companies based in Quebec 2005 establishments in Quebec Railway companies established in 2005 Transport in Côte-Nord Labrador Innu

History

In media

References

Further reading

External links