HAY RIVER - Canadian National Railway (CN), the owner of Northwest Territories' only railway line, the Slave Lake Subdivision to Hay River, is preparing to operate parts of a long-planned offloading facility in Hay River, says a company spokesperson.

CN expects to begin servicing customers in the fall of 2011.

In 2007, the company bought 157 acres in Hay River from town council. The land is located on the west side of the Mackenzie Highway, across from the junction with Highway 5.

The offloading facility is expected to serve potential customers, who will load and offload cargo onto CN trains, though Warren Chandler, a CN spokesperson, could not divulge what companies will require service.

"This would be a customer facility, which means the site is available for customers to locate on," said Chandler. "The customers would need to build their own facilities in order to access rail. This offloading facility is serviced by CN for customers."

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