SASKATOON (Staff) – CP Rail will add several thousand rail cars to its grain fleet over the next few months.
The additions will boost the railway’s grain-dedicated hopper car fleet to more than 14,000 cars.
That will give CP the capacity to move an additional 6.9 to 7.6 million tonnes of grain during the rest of the crop year, said executive vice-president Ed Dodge.
Since mid-March, 1,000 leased cars have been put into grain service, Dodge said in a news release. Another 1,000 will be added in May and 1,000 more could be added in June if required.
Read Also
August rain welcome, but offered limited relief
Increased precipitation in August aids farmers prior to harvest in southern prairies of Canada.
The cars slated for May and June will come from the railways’ existing fleet. They are now being used to haul fertilizer and will become available as seasonal demand drops off.
CP said it has also implemented a number of operational measures to try to make more efficient use of the existing car supply, including sending trains to elevators with empties and returning within hours to pick up loaded cars, running extra shifts at car repair shops and adding extra staff to speed up loading and unloading.
Dodge said increasing the car supply isn’t the only way to improve grain movement. Everyone involved in the system must co-operate, through such things as weekend unloading at ports and inland terminals and regular deliveries by farmers to country elevators.
In the first eight months of the current crop year CP hauled 11.5 million tonnes of grain to market. Last year shipments totalled 18.5 million tonnes; the 10-year average is 18.6 million.
