OTTAWA (NEWS1130) – A 12-hour countdown is on to the return of Canadian Pacific Rail freight service.
    
The Conservative-dominated Senate has passed back-to-work legislation, ending a nine-day strike by 4,800 locomotive engineers, conductors, yardmen.

A spokesman for CP Rail said the company’s plan was to have cars rolling 12 hours after the bill becomes law.
    
While trains will be running Friday morning, the company expects full capacity service won’t be back up until two to three days after that.
    
Labour Minister Lisa Raitt told the Senate she expects it will take weeks to clear the freight backlog and that it could takes years for the rail carrier to recover all its lost business.
    
It’s the third time in the last year the government has tabled back-to-work legislation, a development that critics say short-circuits free collective bargaining and does no favours to workers or the long-term health of business.