My understanding is that Cliffs like KWG, originally wanted a N/S railway but KWG wanted it for itself and a sharing agreement could not be reached.

Not able to use a railway Cliffs wanted to do an end around KWG by obtaining an easement over same path for a road. Only when that failed ( maybe not yet) they decided to fold tent for now.

I believe that Cliffs' prefered choice for N/S transport is still railway, as is just about every one else's.

I thought that the reason that KWG did not give into CLIFFS is that Cliffs wanted a road and Kwg wanted a railway and Kwg said that there was not eough room for both on the eskers. But i find it odd that now there seem to be room for a N/S railway and road. Kwg seems to want to control this route, why, this route would take years to build. The E/W route would take no time at all to build and would serve a bigger group of communities.