Canadian National Railway plans to scale back its operations in Battle Creek, Michigan, however it was unclear how many layoffs will occur among the company's 500 employees there.

Karen Phillips, vice president of U.S. public and government affairs for the subsidiary of CN, said on Thursday that CN trains will continue to run through Battle Creek and Kalamazoo. However, only trains with local routes will be worked on and maintained at the Battle Creek facility, she said.

Of the 45 trains that pass through Battle Creek each day, only a small portion are local trains, she said.

Not all of the people whose jobs are eliminated will lose their employment with the railroad, Phillips said. There will be an opportunity for them to get other positions in the system or retrain for other jobs.

"We expect up to 75 jobs will be affected," Phillips said.

Most of the trains that stopped in Battle Creek for maintenance will be rerouted through other cities, Phillips said, including Lansing, Flint and Fort Wayne, Ind.

"This decision was made strictly on the basis of the most efficient way to run our operation and to keep to our traffic flowing freely," Phillips said.

Officials at the Michigan Department of Transportation said Thursday it is too early to know how the changes may affect businesses and residents in Kalamazoo.

Mike Bedore, departmental analyst in rail-passenger services for MDOT, said the CN change may cause MDOT to rethink its Battle Creek Station extension project. Still in its preliminary stages, a private contractor was looking to build an alternate route for train travel into the Battle Creek station to avoid the congestion caused by CN routes.

"So far about $1 million dollars has been programmed for preliminary engineering for the project," Bedore said. "Until we know how many trains are running into Battle Creek, we won't know how the project will be affected."