C.P. Rail to cut jobs

Canadian Pacific Railway announced on Tuesday it plans to cut 4,500 jobs by 2016 in the recent wave of changes it’s been going through.

According to CBC, CP expects to eliminate 1,700 jobs this year. Both employees and contractors will be affected. CEO Hunter Harrison claims the move will ‘‘greatly improve service, increase the railway’s efficiency, lower costs and grow the business.’’

Harrison also plans to increase the productivity of trains, sell some of the real estate assets, and move the corporate headquarters from downtown Calgary to the Ogden Yard southeast of the city by 2014.

Changes have been in the process ever since Harrison became the new CEO. His rise was the result of a bitter battle between the largest shareholder of the company, Pershing Square Capital, and the previous board of directors.

Hunter Harrison is credited for having turned Montreal-based Canadian National Railway into North America’s most efficient major railway.

Flickr Photo by: Peter Grossmann

STORY WRITTEN BY: GREGORY WILSON