Compagnie de gestion de Matane Inc. (Cogema) is a subsidiary of

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 ...

(CN) operating a dedicated railcar ferry service in

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

between

Matane Matane () is a town on the Gaspé Peninsula in Quebec, Canada, on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River at the mouth of the Matane River. The town is the seat for the La Matanie Regional County Municipality. In addition to Matane itse ...

and

Baie-Comeau Baie-Comeau () is a city in the Côte-Nord region of the province of Quebec, Canada. It is located on the shores of the St. Lawrence River, and is the seat of Manicouagan Regional County Municipality. It is near the mouth of the Manicouagan Ri ...

; it also provides occasional railcar ferry service to isolated rail networks at the ports of Port Cartier, Sept-Îles and

Havre-Saint-Pierre Havre-Saint-Pierre () is a municipality located on the north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in Côte-Nord region, Minganie RCM, Quebec, Canada. History In 1857, a group of Acadian families arrived, in 1872, the Parish of Saint-Pierre-d ...

. It also operates industrial switching to rail customers in Baie-Comeau.

History

The Compagnie de Gestion de Matane (Cogema) was founded in 1973 and began its ferry operations in 1975, providing services along the

St. Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (, ) is a large international river in the middle latitudes of North America connecting the Great Lakes to the North Atlantic Ocean. Its waters flow in a northeasterly direction from Lake Ontario to the Gulf of St. Lawren ...

between Matane and Baie-Comeau. The same year, the CN purchased the railway line between Mont-Joli and Matane and initially partnered with Cogema in a technical capacity, later becoming financially involved. The ferry initially chosen for the service was the ''Incan Saint-Laurent'', a brand-new rail ferry built in Vancouver by Canadian Pacific for a different project between Baie-Comeau and Pointe-au-Pic. CN acquired the ferry, which Cogema leased until it purchased it in 1993. On 31 January 1978 the ferry, renamed MV Georges-Alexandre-Lebel, made its first cargo transport between Baie-Comeau and Matane, with the official service inauguration taking place in May 1978. On 14 February 1999 Cogema was sold by CN to the Quebec Railway Corporation (QRC), which also purchased the Matane and

Mont-Joli Mont-Joli () is a city in the La Mitis Regional County Municipality within the Bas-Saint-Laurent region of Quebec, Canada. It is the county seat. The city is located east of Rimouski near the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River. History In ...

Subdivisions at that time. In November 2008, CN re-purchased these assets from QRC, and Cogema expanded its routes to include Sept-Îles, offering twice-weekly trips along the St. Lawrence River.

Operations

COGEMA operates a rail ferry that can accommodate up to 25 railcars per crossing, transporting approximately 670,000 tons of cargo annually. The ferry runs six days a week on the Matane to Baie-Comeau route, taking about 3 hours per trip, and twice a week to Sept-Îles, with an 8-hour voyage time.

Environmental impact

The Cogema ferry system significantly reduces

greenhouse gas emissions Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from human activities intensify the greenhouse effect. This contributes to climate change. Carbon dioxide (), from burning fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum, oil, and natural gas, is the main cause of climate chan ...

compared to traditional

trucking Road transport or road transportation is a type of transport using roads. Transport on roads can be roughly grouped into the transportation of goods and transportation of people. In many countries licensing requirements and safety regulations ...

. It has been reported that using the rail ferry results in up to 55% less

fuel consumption A fuel is any material that can be made to react with other substances so that it releases energy as thermal energy or to be used for work. The concept was originally applied solely to those materials capable of releasing chemical energy but ...

, and the Port of Sept-Îles estimated a reduction of up to 5,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases in 2010 due to this service. Additionally, this service alleviates congestion on highways, improving road safety and lowering infrastructure maintenance costs.

Key customers and commodities

Key customers using the Cogema ferry include

Alcoa Alcoa Corporation (an acronym for "Aluminum Company of America") is an American industrial corporation. It is the world's eighth-largest producer of aluminum. Alcoa conducts operations in 10 countries. Alcoa is a major producer of primary alu ...

Canada and

Aluminerie Alouette Aluminerie Alouette is an aluminum manufacturing company based in Sept-Îles, Quebec, Canada, on the North Shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. History In 2005, the Alouette Aluminum Smelter, at 550,000 metric tonnes capacity per year, became the ...

, which ship raw materials and finished products via the ferry. Other transported goods include aluminium, paper, lumber, machinery,

ammonium nitrate Ammonium nitrate is a chemical compound with the formula . It is a white crystalline salt consisting of ions of ammonium and nitrate. It is highly soluble in water and hygroscopic as a solid, but does not form hydrates. It is predominantly us ...

, and rail track materials.

Connection to rail network

The Cogema ferry service is fully integrated with the CN rail network, providing access to 75% of the North American market. This integration enhances competitiveness, reduces transportation costs, and offers efficient connections across North America. The Cogema connects to the

Cartier Railway The Cartier Railway (formerly CFC and QCM) is a privately owned railway that operates of track in the Canadian province of Québec. It is operated by the Cartier Railway Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Arcelor Mittal, formerly Québec ...

Port-Cartier Port-Cartier () is a city in the Côte-Nord region of Quebec, Canada. It is located on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River at the mouth of the Aux-Rochers River, southwest of Sept-Îles, Quebec. Port-Cartier had a population of 6,516 at ...

and 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 ...

at Sept-Îles.

Sources

Trains A train (from Old French , from Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles th ...

magazine (February 2009, p9)
Vessel Finder entry for MV George Alexandre Lebel

References

External links

* Ferry companies of Quebec Train ferries Quebec railways Industrial railways in Canada Matane Canadian National Railway subsidiaries Transport in Sept-Îles, Quebec {{Quebec-transport-stub