Canadian Pacific Railway to shrink workforce by 23 percent

Canadian Pacific Railway plans to eliminate more than 4,000 jobs over the next four years, including 1,700 this year. The railway has its U.S. headquarters in Minneapolis and employs more than 1,600 people in Minnesota. Canadian Pacific’s new CEO Hunter Harrison announced the cutbacks at an investors meeting in New York but did not specify where they will occur.

Harrison, who became CEO after a bitter proxy fight, promises to cut costs and increase efficiency. The CBC reports he is credited with engineering a turnaround at Canadian National Railway. Earlier Tuesday, Canadian Pacific announced it is looking to sell a rail line that runs from southwestern Minnesota into Nebraska and Wyoming.

That follows a decision to cancel a proposed expansion of coal train traffic running across southern Minnesota — a plan that was opposed by groups including the Mayo Clinic.