CN opens centralized training centre

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/09/2014 (4229 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Every new operations employee Canadian National Railways hires in Canada is now getting trained at a new $35-million training centre that officially opened Tuesday in Winnipeg.

CN president and CEO Claude Mongeau told about 200 people attending the centre’s grand opening celebration that up to 400 workers, including new hires and existing employees learning new skills or upgrading existing ones, will be trained each week at the 100,000-square-foot facility at 550 Pandora Ave. East in Transcona.

But at times, such as this week, that number can swell to more than 500, which means millions of dollars a year in spinoff economic benefits for the local economy.

“It means 400 people occupying hotel rooms in Winnipeg and a couple of hundred flights in and out of Winnipeg each week,” Mongeau said. “In short, it’s like adding a major business convention to Winnipeg each week, all year-round.”

There’s also the money the trainees will be spending on things such as restaurant meals, entertainment, and transportation while they’re here — the training courses last anywhere from a week to seven weeks.

The Winnipeg facility is one of two new centralized training centres CN is opening this year. It’s also opening a 75,000-square-foot facility for its U.S. employees next month in the Chicago suburb of Homewood, Ill.

With its baby boom-era employees now approaching retirement age, CN expects to be hiring thousands of new workers each year for the foreseeable future. In 2014 alone, it will be adding more than 3,000 to its North American network, Mongeau said.

All of those new employees will need to be trained, and having centralized facilities will ensure they are trained under a uniform curriculum and with the latest in equipment, technologies and teaching methods.

‘In short, it’s like adding a major business convention to Winnipeg each week, all year round’

— CN CEO Claude Mongeau, on the economic impact of the new training centre

The Winnipeg facility, which had a soft opening back in April, trains everyone from locomotive engineers and conductors to track supervisors and signal maintainers. The trainees receive hands-on instruction in indoor learning laboratories equipped with things such as locomotive simulators and dispatcher stations. They can also receive field training in outdoor labs equipped with rolling stock and other types of railway equipment.

Mongeau said Winnipeg was selected as the site for the Canadian training centre because of its central location, its historic ties to the railway — it’s had a major mechanical shop here for more than a century — and the fact it remains a key hub in its transcontinental network.

“All of CN’s east-west, transcontinental traffic and our north-south cross-border traffic are funnelled through he city,” he noted.

Many of the Montreal-based railway’s heavy hitters, including its board of directors and about 15 members of its senior executive team, were at the celebrations, which included a luncheon and tours of the centre.

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca