Once Canada's oil relief valve, rail shipping grinds to near halt

[John Ashworth]

Once Canada's oil relief valve, rail shipping grinds to near halt

After moving record-large Canadian oil volumes by rail just five months ago, shippers have hit the brakes, idling thousands of cars and tens of millions of dollars’ worth of infrastructure.

Rail was Canada’s oil lifeline in recent years when cheaper pipelines ran full and crude had no other exit from landlocked Alberta. But oil production cuts this year opened pipeline space and eliminated demand for trains...