For the first time in six years, grain from The Pas, Manitoba will ride the rails to the Port of Churchill for export. Beginning Friday, July 17, 2026, the shipment will travel roughly 1,000 kilometres on the Hudson Bay Railway, marking a major step in the northern trade corridor’s comeback.
The Hudson Bay Railway and Port of Churchill are owned by the Arctic Gateway Group, an Indigenous and community-led partnership of 41 First Nations and northern communities. Chair Mike Spence, who is also mayor of Churchill, called the grain movement “a strong signal of the progress made to restore and rebuild this corridor.”
Years of federal and provincial investment have gone into restoring the line. Since 2018, the Government of Canada has put over $320 million into acquiring, repairing, and maintaining the railway and port. A five-year, $175-million operations and pre-development package announced in March 2025 is keeping that momentum going. The work is showing results: the 2024 construction season set records with 2.3 million feet of spot surfacing, nearly 120,000 new railway ties installed, and a 10 per cent cut in travel time, shaving three hours off the trip.
The grain buyer is a large global agricultural company based in Canada, though Arctic Gateway Group president and CEO Chris Avery declined to name it. The grain will be loaded at The Pas, then hauled north to Churchill—Canada’s only deepwater Arctic port linked to the North American rail system. From there, it will be loaded onto vessels for overseas markets later this summer.
This is set to be the most diversified shipping season in the port’s history. Along with grain, the corridor will move critical minerals, potash, and industrial goods bound for Nunavut.
