CN Railroad: Record Pace Seen for Western Canadian Grain

Montreal-based Canadian National railroad announced that seven months into the 2014/15 crop year, the railroad continues to ship record amounts of Western Canadian grain. As of the last week in February, CN has moved 4,700 hoppers of grain per week on average – 21% more than during the same period in the previous record crop year of 2013/14.

Responding to claims by the new Ag Transport Coalition that CN is failing to meet demand, CN president and CEO, Claude Mongeau states that the railroad is ‘responding very efficiently to all demands from our customers’, adding that the wait-list currently stands at only a few days’ worth of car supply, and that car supply would increase if terminal throughput was more efficient at West Coast ports.

It has been a full year since the Canadian government has imposed required grain hauling minimums for major railways and in that time CN states its cumulative tonnage of grain hauled has exceeded these minimums by 2.5 million tons, or 10%.

The railway has also announced the third round of bidding for its Commercial Fleet Integration Program for shippers who want to supply owned or leased covered grain hopper cars to be integrated into the CN fleet. These shippers would gain access to year round supply from the fleet when shipping grain to commercial destinations in Canada or the U.S.