The Athabasca Northern Railway is a shortline railway in

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

, Canada. Originally built as the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway between 1909 and 1925, the line runs between Boyle, Alberta and Fort McMurray, Alberta. It eventually became part of the Northern Alberta Railway, which was jointly owned by the

Canadian National Railway 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. CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue a ...

and

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway () , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian Pacific Ka ...

, and it was closed in 1989. The line was reborn as the Athabasca Northern Railway in 2000 when it was sold to Cando Contracting. By 2007, the track had deteriorated due to increased traffic, and the line was set to be abandoned. It was re-acquired by Canadian National in December 2007, however, and as of 2011, rehabilitation was underway. However, as it currently stands in 2023, everything south of Athabasca has been torn up with only a roadbed. There is a small section that spurs off of the Westlock subdivision that was once the Athabasca subdivision, but it only goes so far and is now a storage spur for CN. Anything past this spur however no longer remains.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Athabasca Northern Railway Defunct Alberta railways Canadian Pacific Railway subsidiaries Canadian National Railway subsidiaries