The federal transport minister has issued an order requiring Canada’s two main railways — Canadian National and Canadian Pacific — to implement a set of measures aimed at preventing further wildfires in southern B.C. and other parts of the country where fire risk is high. Minister Omar Alghabra issued the ministerial order on Sunday, following… Read More
Canadian National Railway (CN Rail) appears to have come from behind and taken the lead in the race with Canadian Pacific Railway (CP Rail) to merge with Kansas City Southern to form the first rail freight network to link Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. CN announced Thursday that it has revised its offer to merge… Read More
Canadian National (CN) Railway has announced a competing bid to combine forces with the Kansas City Southern (KCS) railway. CN says its offer represents a 21 per cent premium over the implied value of Canadian Pacific (CP) Railway’s existing agreement with KCS, which was announced in late March. The CP-KCS deal, which has already been… Read More
The Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) has ruled that Canadian National Railway (CN) and Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) were above their maximum grain revenue entitlements for the 2019-2020 crop year. CN and CP will have 30 days to pay the amount by which they exceeded their revenue entitlements — $3.17 million and $2.17 million respectively —… Read More
Areas near the Rocky Mountains have already seen their first snow — an important reminder that winter preparation should be well underway not just on the farm, but also for the entire value chain. To that end, Canada’s main railways have released their winter planning initiatives and investments for the 2020-2021 winter season, in accordance… Read More
Electric semi trucks are likely a long way from being deployed on farms, especially for long-distance hauling in a cold Canadian winter, but others in the supply chain are starting to adopt electric power to move goods around. They’re not switching to electric trains (yet), but CN Rail has ordered 50 all-electric tandem axle Class… Read More
After setting a new grain shipping record in the 2019-20 crop year, CN Rail is raising the bar on the number of grain cars it’s committing to move on a weekly basis in the new crop year, which begins August 1, 2020. In CN’s federally-mandated grain shipping plan for 2020-2021 published this week, the railway… Read More
CN Rail has announced plans to acquire 1,500 new generation, high-capacity grain hopper cars with delivery starting in January of 2021. These new railcars will encourage economic recovery through job creation in the North American manufacturing sector, as well as help CN continue to meet the growing needs of grain farmers and grain customers, the… Read More
CN Rail will spend approximately $305 million across Alberta in 2020, including the construction of more double track on CN’s mainline. Included in the plan is a maintenance program that will focus on the replacement of rail and ties, as well as maintenance work on level crossings, bridges, culverts, signal systems, and other track infrastructure…. Read More
A tumultuous and trying winter grain shipping season is wrapping up on a much higher note, thanks to decent weather, resolved blockades, and fully-opened tracks. Sean Finn, executive vice-president of corporate services and chief legal officer for CN Rail, says that although the railway is taking extra precautions regarding COVID-19, the network is working well… Read More
Grain elevators in both western and eastern Canada are reporting delays in accessing containers to fill for overseas customers. Regular train traffic is catching up after a series of setbacks this winter — a strike, a rock slide on the western tracks, and then blockades — but container traffic is another beast entirely. Container traffic… Read More
Protesters standing in solidarity with Wet’suwet’en First Nation’s protest of the Coastal GasLink pipeline project have set up blockades in three provinces — Ontario, B.C., and now Manitoba — significantly impacting rail movement and precipitating CN Rail to cancel hundreds of train movements. Many in the agriculture industry are nervous about what this means for… Read More
Rail blockades near Belleville, Ont. and in northern B.C. in support of a B.C. oil pipeline standoff in Wet’suwet’en territory will soon begin to significantly impact CN Rail’s network if they’re not removed, the company says. CN Rail notes the blockades are unrelated to CN’s activities, however the Belleville line is CN’s only eastern link… Read More
The Canadian National Railway Company (CN) and the Canadian Pacific Railway Company (CP) will not have overage-related payouts or penalties due to falling below their respective maximum grain revenue entitlements for the 2018-19 crop year. The amount of western grain moved under the MRE program during 2018-19 was 46,060,737 tonnes, 13.4% more than the volume… Read More
In the week since the CN Railway strike ended, a top executive says they’re on the right track to get grain and other products moving as they once were. CN’s executive vice-president and corporate services and chief legal officer, Sean Finn, says although the strike meant setbacks, they were still able to move close to… Read More
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