CN opens training facility in Illinois

HOMEWOOD, Illinois—CN opened a new employee training centre in suburban Chicago. The 55,000-square-foot facility will host up to 250 CN students from across the US every week, with hands-on training for all key railway jobs.

Claude Mongeau, CN president and chief executive officer, said: “The opening of this state-of-the-art training center is a cornerstone in CN’s workforce renewal, which this year will see the hiring of more than 3,500 employees across our North American network.

The new training centre is located in the railway’s Chicago Terminal. The Chicago area is the largest freight hub in North America and suburban Homewood is home to CN’s US headquarters.

The centre will offer courses for jobs ranging from conductor to car mechanic, and from track supervisor to signal maintainer. Employees will receive hands-on training in learning laboratories with equipment such as locomotive simulators and dispatcher stations. Outdoor labs with dedicated rolling stock and other equipment for field training will also be a key focus.

CN invested $25 million in the Homewood training campus and it is the second of two modern employee training centres to open on CN’s network this year. Last month CN marked the completion of its new training centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where up to 350 students from across Canada will train every week.