SARNIA, Ont., (Dec. 2, 2004) — CN announced it has renamed its underwater railroad tunnel between Canada and the U.S. the Paul M. Tellier Tunnel, after the company’s former president and CEO.

The tunnel, opening in 1995 as the St. Clair Tunnel, runs under the St. Clair River between Sarnia, Ont., and Port Huron, Mich. Tellier, CN president and CEO from 1992 to 2002, envisioned the St. Clair Tunnel as a vital rail link in international commerce between Canada and the U.S., the world’s largest trading partners.

“Renaming the tunnel is especially fitting because Paul Tellier realized his vision for CN as a truly North American transportation company by completing the tunnel and successfully extending the railroad’s reach into the U.S.,” said E. Hunter Harrison, who succeeded Tellier.

Last year, transborder traffic, of which a substantial amount passed through the tunnel, generated 34 per cent of CN’s total revenue of $5,884 million.

The Paul M. Tellier Tunnel is 1,868 metres long. Its 8.4-metre interior diameter can accommodate doublestack container trains, multi-level auto carriers and other large rail cars and payloads. The tunnel significantly reduces transit times for rail traffic that previously had to be barged across the river, as well as for container traffic between Halifax and Chicago, and the U.S. industrial heartland.

The tunnel’s construction was recognized as one of Michigan’s most important engineering feats of the 20th century.