(Reuters) – U.S. railroads Norfolk Southern and BNSF Railway said on Monday that all embargoes related to potential work stoppages in Canada had been lifted and affected rail traffic had resumed, ending an unprecedented disruption to freight traffic across the border.

Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Kansas City had previously imposed embargoes on the transport of goods to the United States as part of an orderly shutdown ahead of a possible work stoppage.

The railroad company also locked out over 9,000 union members at midnight on August 22, which simultaneously triggered a rail shutdown.

The Canada Industrial Relations Board on Saturday ordered an end to the work stoppages, issued a binding arbitration order and decided on the continuation of existing contracts.

Both CN and CPKC have previously stressed that it could take several weeks for them to fully recover from this work stoppage.

Scott Shannon, vice president of Canada at freight forwarder CH Robinson, told Reuters in a statement: “We expect it will take up to a week for each rail line to be fully restored and running smoothly. It will take much longer to catch up on backlogged shipments.”

(Reporting by Abhinav Parmar in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore)