Canada is the world’s second-largest country by area and relies heavily on trains to transport grain, beans, automobiles, potash, coal and other goods.

“It’s a catastrophe. Literally nothing would move,” said Greg Northey, vice president of public affairs at Pulse Canada.

Talks between Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Kansas City on one hand and the Teamsters union on the other have deadlocked, with each side accusing the other of bad faith.

The rail companies say they will start locking out workers on Aug. 22 if they cannot reach a labor deal, while the union says it is ready to call a strike for that date.

Industry groups want the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to prevent a stoppage, noting Canada’s railways transport around $380 billion worth of goods annually.

“Factoring in the millions of Canadian jobs that would be impacted, the magnitude of the disruption is daunting,” the Business Council of Canada lobby organization said in an open letter to Trudeau and Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon.

U.S. freight traffic impacted

A stoppage would also hit the United States, given the degree of integration between the two economies. Canada sends around 75 per cent of all goods exports south of the border.

The networks of the two Canadian rail operators, CN and CPKC, connect with several key U.S. rail and shipping hubs such as Chicago, New Orleans, Minneapolis and Memphis. CPKC’s network also extends further south connecting with ports on both the east and west coast of Mexico.

CN said on Tuesday it was putting in place an embargo on any new reservations for movement of hazardous materials, security-sensitive cargoes or refrigerated containers originating in Canada, starting on Thursday.

It also announced it was embargoing all intermodal traffic originating from over half a dozen U.S. hubs with which its network connects, starting on Friday.

Separately, U.S. rail operator Norfolk Southern on Tuesday advised customers that it was embargoing all hazardous and security-sensitive cargoes to or from CN and CPKC’s networks effective immediately. It said additional embargoes may come in case of any work stoppages at the Canadian rail operators.

Some U.S. companies find it more efficient to use Montreal or Vancouver for imports and exports.

U.S. logistics firm C.H. Robinson, which manages more than 650,000 loads across the border a year, said it was lining up extra trucking capacity on both sides of the border.

“When all trains serving the entire country could literally be stopped on their tracks, that’s another whole level of disruption,” said Scott Shannon, a senior executive at C.H. Robinson.

Pressure mounts

Industry groups say MacKinnon has the power to refer the dispute to the country’s labor relations board and thereby head off a stoppage.

MacKinnon has so far said he wants the two sides to strike a deal at the negotiating table.

Pressure on Ottawa looks set to mount in the coming days as industry groups hammer home the potential costs of a stoppage.

Earlier this week, Morgan Stanley in a note to clients said that each week of shipment disruptions could dent the earnings before taxes of mining giant Glencore by an estimated $137.2 million, or more, as a rail shutdown would disrupt coal shipments from its majority-owned unit, Elk Valley Resources.

The Chemistry Industry Association of Canada said chlorine shipments would soon become unavailable, hitting the quality of drinking water within two weeks.

“There are very large municipalities that – if the strike goes on – are going to be under boil water advisories,” CEO Bob Masterson said by phone, noting that the industry moved more than 500 rail cars a day.

“There is no plan B … to transport this kind of volume you will need 2,000 trucks, roughly. There aren’t 2,000 trucks, and there aren’t 2,000 drivers,” he said.

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Earlier this month, rail workers from Canadian National (CN) and CPKC voted overwhelmingly to strike as soon as May 22. The federal government asked the Canadian Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) to look at whether the strike would have safety implications. This delays any strike action until at least 72 hours after the board hands down a decision.

Contracts covering locomotive engineers, conductors and yard workers at CN and CPKC at the end of 2023 and Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) is re-negotiating a third agreement covering CPKC rail traffic controllers.

Agriculture groups have said a strike could bring grain movement to a halt, which would mean financial losses for farmers.

In an update to members on May 22, TCRC said it met with the company and federal mediators in Montreal on May 17.

“Despite being ready to negotiate over the long weekend, the Company declined to participate unless their original demands were met,” TCRC said.

The groups parted ways on Tuesday and no more meetings have been scheduled, the union added.

“Ultimately, no progress has been made on the Union’s demands this week. The Company clearly indicated its preference for arbitration over negotiation, suggesting it hopes for government intervention to stop collective bargaining.”

In a news release yesterday, CPKC said it has “done everything it can to restore certainty and predictability for all our employees, their families and our supply chains.” This includes two different offers to the union.

It said TCRC refused an offer to resolve the dispute via binding arbitration.

“CPKC remains firmly committed to negotiating renewed agreements to avoid a work stoppage that would be detrimental to the interests of all stakeholders… Unfortunately, it is clear the TCRC leadership does not share that commitment,” the company said.

On May 16, CN said it had presented a new offer to the union that adds overtime pay for shifts over 10 hours with a maximum of 12 hours per shift for employees in Western Canada, scheduled days off and wage increases of three per cent in 2024 and 2.5 per cent in 2025.

In an update to members, TCRC said the offer “decimates your collective agreements and compromises your safety in favour of operational ease and profits.”

The union has accused the rail companies of trying to remove rest provisions they say are critical to safety. CN said its offer requires employees to comply with duty and rest period rules.

CPKC said offers it has made don’t compromise safety. “To say or suggest otherwise is patently false,” it said in the May 22 news release.

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In a decision handed down yesterday, the Canadian Transportation Agency ruled that the Canadian National Railway Company (CN) exceeded its maximum grain revenue of  entitlements in crop year 2022-23 by nearly $3.5 million. Its limit is $1.08 billion, the CTA said in a news release.

The Canadian Pacific Kansas City Railway Company (CPKC) exceeded it’s revenue limit by almost $3.4 million. Its revenue is capped at $940.5 million.

CN and CPKC have 30 days to pay the overage, plus a five per cent penalty.

By regulation, these payments go to the Western Grains Research Foundation, the news release added.

The railways moved some 60 per cent more grain this year than last year, with over 45.3 million tonnes freighted across the country. Last year, the trains moved 28.4 million tonnes.

The increase can mainly be attributed to recovery after the droughty 2021-22 season, CTA said.

In the last season, both railway firms also exceeded their revenue caps, chipping in $5.7 million to grain research.

Over the 2022-23 season, the bulk of grain moved went to Vancouver, with CN carrying a bit more than 15.1 million tonnes, and CPKC moving just over 15.4 million, according to the CTA’s written decision.

CN brought 4.8 million tonnes to Prince Rupert, just over 1.5 million to eastern Canada, totallying 24.2 million tonnes with an exchange switching adjustment.

CPKC brought 4.6 million tonnes to Thunder Bay, and nearly 861,000 tonnes to Eastern Canada with a total of 21.1 million tonnes moved, including the exchange switching adjustment.

—Geralyn Wichers is associate digital editor of AGCanada.com. She writes from southeastern Manitoba.

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“Even an amateur golfer can hit a hole in one once in a while, but the pros hit a good ball consistently,” said Wade Sobkowich, the association’s executive director.

CN Rail said it moved more than 806,000 tonnes of grain from Western Canada during the third week of October, exceeding its previous record by more than 50,000 tonnes.

“We are very proud to have set a new record for the amount of western Canadian grain moved in a single week,” chief marketing officer Doug MacDonald said in a release. “We are confident that our railroaders will continue delivering results for Canadian farmers and all of our customers.”

[RELATED] Railways in the spotlight as shipping season begins

The record-setting week followed a strong performance in September of 2.64 million tonnes shipped, its second-best movement for that month, said CN.

Sobkowich acknowledged the railway is doing a decent job so far this year. According to the Ag Transport Coalition’s weekly report, CN has consistently delivered more than 80 per cent of grain shippers’ demand for cars since shipments began picking up in Week 6 of the current crop year, which began Aug. 1. It reached 91 per cent in Week 11, the first time in six weeks that it broke through the 90-per-cent performance threshold.

“We’re pleased that they’re performing in the way that they are. The key is to stay on top of it,” said Sobkowich. “From our perspective, if they can do 85 per cent or higher, week in and week out, then it’s acceptable. And when you get into the 90s, that’s what we call good.”

Of course, the grain companies his association represents want the railways to provide a rail car every time one is ordered, he added.

“I think you have to put it into perspective. When I make a telephone call to someone, I expect the telecommunications provider to have a line available for me to make that call 100 per cent of the time. But because of the way the rail freight market works, that’s not what we’ve grown accustomed to.”

CP Rail’s start to the shipping season was slightly less rosy, generally delivering fewer than 80 per cent of the cars requested by grain shippers, according to the Ag Transport Coalition, an alliance of seven groups including the elevator association and Alberta Wheat.

[RELATED] Biggest U.S. rail union rejects tentative deal, raising threat of strike

“They’re struggling to get back into the higher percentages in terms of weekly car fulfilment,” said Sobkowich. “Once we start falling behind, it’s very difficult to catch up.”

He also noted that things were humming along last year at this time with hopper car deliveries close to, or above, 85 per cent until about Week 16 of the harvest year.

Then the proverbial wheels came off. The flooding in B.C. as well as cold temperatures and workers getting COVID-19 pushed order fulfilment levels to around 50 per cent for CP and the low 30s for CN. Neither railroad would fully catch up until the end of the year.

While it’s unlikely those conditions will repeat, shippers remain cautious that CN’s hot start is an indication of things to come.

“We need consistency week in and week out — it isn’t enough on its own,” said Sobkowich. “We need to get a week like that every week, between now and through the winter and into the spring, when shipments tend to fall off.”

But it is an indicator that CN has resources in place, he said.

“We hope that this is a sign of things to come and we continue to get press releases from CN congratulating themselves for a job well done.”

– This article was originally published at the Manitoba Co-operator.

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The tempestuous couple — railroads and grain farmers — is on the cusp of another argument over harvest shipping. And there’s no alternative for producers. They’re locked into the relationship.

Will CN Rail and CP Rail, which struggled to move a 49-million tonne harvest last year, be able to manage 75 million tonnes this fall and winter?

It’s a good question, said Wade Sobkowich, executive director of the Western Grain Elevator Association.

“Railways are presenting grain plans again,” he said. “The numbers they expect to move are similar to what they said they expected to move last year. But if we look at last year and how close they came to the plan, the plan was completely useless.

“The only thing worse than no information is bad information — and those grain plans represent bad information.”

CN admits in its 2022-23 grain plan (see at bottom), which Ottawa requires railways to produce, that it expects intense ongoing pressure on Canada’s transportation system, especially rail movement to the West Coast.

“At this point, based on current demand forecasts and the best economic and market information available, CN expects that total demand for rail capacity between Edmonton and the ports of Vancouver and Prince Rupert will exceed network capacity during some weeks in the fall of 2022 and in early 2023,” the railway said.

That’s not because CN hasn’t been bolstering its capacity, said David Przednowek, the railway’s assistant vice-president of grain.

The railway spent $5 billion in Western Canada over the last five years, including $1.1 billion this year, to improve overall network productivity, he said.

“In the middle of COVID, CN did not take its foot off the gas when it came to investment,” said Przednowek. “We are playing the long game. Think about the growth in grain, potash, and all kinds of other rail traffic segments.”

He also said the employee count, mostly conductors and engineers, rose by 850 in the first half of this year and another 500 conductors will graduate between October and December.

In its grain plan (see at bottom), CP said it’s well positioned to move grain, potentially more than 25 million tonnes in this crop year. The company said it plans to increase its Canadian workforce by 1,600 people this year and is also completing a $500 million multi-year investment to purchase 5,900 new high-capacity grain cars.

“The new hopper cars are already providing significant capacity gains for Canada’s grain supply chain,” the CP document states.

‘Cause for concern’

The railways need to move about one million tonnes per week to keep up, he said.

“The next four weeks are really going to tell us how bad it’s going to be for the rest of the winter,” Hemmes said in late September. “I’m not of the mind that we should start ringing alarm bells, but there is cause for concern. The message that CN in particular sent in its annual grain plan was a little bit disconcerting.”

Sobkowich said he is very concerned, although he credits CN and CP with quickly repairing damage from washouts in B.C. in 2021. Destroyed infrastructure due to flooding blocked grain shipments, resulting in problems with sales contracts and extension penalties for grain sellers, he said. Wildfires also affected railways in 2021.

“We rolled with that the best we could, understanding that it was really a ‘nobody’s fault’ type situation,” he said. “In fact, we would say the rail companies recovered pretty quickly considering the extent of the damage.

“But once that line was up and running again — the recoverability of CN in particular, but also CP to a degree — resiliency wasn’t there.”

Post-flood grain shipping was so bad that the elevator association asked the Canadian Transportation Agency to investigate. The agency declined, which Sobkowich said is disappointing because rail transportation problems are systemic.

“The railways just didn’t have enough resources in place,” he said. “They didn’t have enough crews in order to handle the volumes that were required. They furloughed and let go quite a few of their staff.

“When it came to recoverability, they ran so lean that they just didn’t have the ability to recover as quickly as we needed them to.”

Historical problems with delivering grain to port are tarnishing Canada’s reputation as a reliable grain supplier, said Mike Ammeter, chair of the Canadian Canola Growers Association.

“We are watching a monopoly or duopoly. There’s no competition,” said Ammeter, who farms near Sylvan Lake. “So in place of competition, we have regulation. We have to rely on regulation to get that job done.”

CN and CP seem to have a “shrug of the shoulders, see you next year” attitude when it comes to transporting grain, he said.

“I’m at the mercy of the railways. I know that, they know that,” he said. “It’s just not a good spot to be in. We can have regulations forever, but at the end of the day I still don’t have an alternative.”

Slow rail shipments mean farmers sometimes lack the cashflow to properly run their businesses, said Ammeter, adding Canada could seriously damage trading relationships that have taken decades to build.

“Being nice people and being good guys, that only gets you so far,” he said. “At the end of the day there are transactions that need to take place. We need to be able to uphold our end of the bargain. When we have rail issues, it ends up being a black mark.”

Should farmers be concerned this year?

It depends on expectations, said Przednowek.

CN Rail has the capacity to move grain volumes over the course of the crop year, he said.

“We also know based on the limitations of the end-to-end supply chain, from the country elevator through the rail system to the port and for export, that there’s a limit to how much the system can handle on a weekly basis,” he said.

“If the expectation is that the crop needs to move all in the fall time and wintertime, that’s not going to happen, and I don’t think that’s the expectation.”

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Plan details include the addition of 57 high-horsepower locomotives, new rolling stock and 500 additional employees to bolster operating crews in Western Canada. More high-capacity grain hopper cars are also on the way. CN said it plans to add 500 covered cars this year, a figure it expects to match in 2023. New cars will have 15 per cent more volume capacity, the company said.

“Faced with growing demands from all sectors, the plan also calls for greater balance across all rail corridors to reach the upper end of the maximum sustainable supply chain capacity range,” said a company news release.

“That requires making better use of the eastern Canadian network, including Thunder Bay when the St. Lawrence Seaway System is open to navigation, and direct rail shipments to St. Lawrence River ports when the seaway closes for winter.”

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CN Rail has been particularly poor when it comes to delivering hopper cars requested by grain companies, hitting a low of only 24 per cent during one week in January, said Steve Pratte, manager of policy development with the Canadian Canola Growers Association.

While frigid temperatures have slowed trains, cold weather alone isn’t enough to account for the drop in service.

“It’s one of those lingering things that no one has an answer for,” Pratte said during a recent virtual presentation.

“This is unacceptable and imperils our ability to keep our global customers happy.”

The matter has been raised with the federal transport and ag ministers, and while there’s been no action plan laid out, industry experts expect to see a slow return to normal service.

“It’s still a struggle… (but) it will work itself out,” he said.

However, while Pratte said he has heard stories about trains being loaded and sitting for a couple of weeks, there haven’t been massive disruptions nor are elevators turning farmers away because they’ve run out of space.

“The country and terminal elevators do have capacity,” he said.

And while wildfires, flooding in B.C. and the pandemic all disrupted service, the system proved resilient, he said.

“We are coming off a year where the supply chain worked well, all things considered.”

The past year was also a big one for the canola-processing sector and this will have implications for grain transport in the years ahead, added Pratte.

He noted there have been a series of announcements from companies that are either building new crushing facilities or expanding existing ones, including Richardson (in Yorkton, Sask.) Viterra and Cargill (both in Regina), Ceres Global Ag (Northgate, Sask.) and Federated Co-op Limited, which plans to build the nation’s largest renewable diesel refinery in Regina.

“It will change the profile of domestic transportation when these projects come online, and there will be different considerations for movement,” said Pratte. “The majority were announced for 2024-25. There will be implications for the supply chain and shifting of traditional trade flows, traditional markets and demand that, that will place on western-centred grain supply chains.”

While some canola oil and meal from this surge in processing will be exported via the Port of Vancouver, some will also be sold domestically or to the U.S. — and that ultimately means less canola seed being shipped by hopper cars to the West Coast.

“It’s great for the industry and will have all sorts of spin­off effects for the economy,” he said. “(And) it’s taking a portion of demand and loosening it up on the West Coast for other products to transit there.”

Another good-news story for grain transport is CP and CN’s continuing investment in new-generation hopper cars, which allow trains to carry significantly more grain per trip.

And the merger between CP and Kansas City Southern Railway (expected to be finalized later this year) could have a payoff, too. The merger won’t impact existing grain movement but it will create the first rail network connecting Canada, the U.S. and Mexico — and that could eventually lead to new trade patterns between Western Canada and Mexico, said Pratte.

“My perspective on this is that it’s all good,” he said. “There’s future potential, but this is not going to happen on Day 1.”

The record grain movement two years ago has shown what the system is capable of doing and Pratte said the bar has now been raised.

“That was a benchmark for us to gauge future grain-handling transportation systems against,” he said.

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The CTA’s report stated that CN’s revenue from transporting Western Canadian grain was nearly C$1.045 billion and was C$2.4 million over its entitlement. The railway must now pay a five per cent penalty of nearly C$120,000 to Western Grains Research Foundation.

Conversely CP’s grain revenue amounted was in excess of C$1.014 billion, and C$20.25 million under its cap.

The CTA noted 2020/21 saw record grain movement of more than 52.33 million tonnes, up nine per cent from the previous year. The agency issued its ruling on Dec. 22.

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“For the next couple of months, I think it’s going to be a very light program out of Vancouver,” Quorum Corp. president Mark Hemmes said on Dec. 3. “They’ve got track back, but a lot of it is probably temporary. They’ll have to continue doing track work over the next couple of months to get things back up to something resembling normal.”

After slides and washouts closed both the CN and CP rail lines on Nov. 15, CP was able to reopen its line on Nov. 23. CN restored limited service on Nov. 27 before having to close it again on Nov. 28 after another rainstorm and then reopening again on Dec. 5.

Having both open is critical as the railways share their lines through the Fraser Canyon to create one-way routes.

“When we saw the CP line come back online first, trains were able to go east and west on that one line. But because the trains were alternating directions, the efficiency was fairly low,” said Geoff Backman, manager of business development and markets for Alberta Wheat and Barley.

“At this point, CN and CP will be able to dedicate each line to a single direction. One line will have westward traffic and the other will have eastward traffic. That’s going to be the next efficiency gain for rail going into Vancouver.”

Hemmes is hopeful, too.

“There will be a couple of months where things will be really, really slow in the movement of grain, and then come February, I’m sure things are going to pick right back up — knock on wood,” said Hemmes. “A lot of people have got used to events like this happening, and then a week or two later, everything is back to normal. But this time, there were multiple washouts and multiple slides, with both lines being cut off.

“But without any more catastrophes or weather events, I think we’ll be back to normal soon.”

Backlogs in Vancouver

Grain loading has slowed down at the Port of Vancouver.

“There isn’t a lot of grain left in Vancouver, and they’re basically hand to mouth with whatever the railways can bring in,” said Hemmes.

During the week when the slide occurred, 908 grain cars were unloaded in Vancouver, well below the three-year average for that time of year (which is 4,000 to 6,000 cars per week). This year’s smaller crop means the backlog isn’t as bad as it could be, but the system is still strained.

“Normally there would be a cycle of loads in and empties out,” said Hemmes. “Well, the loads were all there and all the cars got emptied out, but there was no way to get the empties back out of Vancouver. That’s going to slow things down for a few weeks.”

As of Dec. 3, there were 27 grain vessels in the Port of Vancouver — 20 at anchor and seven loading at berth — slightly above the average of 20 vessels waiting at a given time.

“So 27 is higher than normal, but it certainly isn’t something we need to get panicked about,” said Hemmes. “If you go back to when the blockades were on in February 2020, we had at one point 40-some-odd vessels in Vancouver waiting. We’re not there, so that’s a good thing.”

Demurrage is a concern, added Backman.

“Generally if the ships are in port for longer than 14 days, a fee starts to be applied every day that they’re late loading,” he said, although they’re sometimes waived for ‘special circumstances.’

“We’re not aware of how many of those are currently charging fees, but it is a concern because those fees are eventually passed on to farmers through lower grain prices.”

The container side of the grain business is in “tougher shape” as the port is so congested, it is not allowing empty containers to be filled, said Hemmes.

“They’re just evacuating the empty containers back into their origin ports, and as a result, anybody who is looking to ship grain in containers is having a very difficult time trying to get capacity. That’s really affected the special crops side.”

Some grain is moving through Prince Rupert, but there are limitations on both the rail capacity and the availability of grain there. The port has had lower volumes in recent years because of difficulties getting car allocations from CN, and while there is capacity in the terminal there, it has only one terminal compared to Vancouver’s seven.

“There are already some actions being taken to shift some of the shipments away from Vancouver and into Prince Rupert,” said Hemmes. “But it’s very limited as to the amount of traffic we can actually shift.”

Elevator capacity

The country elevator system isn’t full yet.

“In some areas, farmers were delivering up to two months ahead of schedule, so that suggests we may have been a bit ahead in the country coming into the slide,” said Backman. “At this point, we haven’t heard any concerns from farmers regarding the ability to deliver, but any delivery delays will depend on how long this outage lasts.”

However, deliveries generally slow down at the beginning of December.

“Couple that with the short crop we’re dealing with, there won’t be a lot of pain. In a couple of months, there will be plenty of time left in the crop year for recovery,” said Hemmes.

“The December and January movement is going to slow that down, and people will start to get worried. But because of the short crop and the fact that the railways will be back at it soon, we should finish up the crop year with a fairly small carry-forward stock.”

And even if producers are feeling anxious, they should also be “encouraged that getting rail movement back up and running is clearly a priority,” said Backman.

“Anything impacting the export of grains is a major concern for Canadian producers,” he said. “But we’ve seen both railways, as well as the provinces of B.C. and Alberta, throwing what they can at this to try and get the rail system back up again after this disaster.

“It sounds like everything that can be done is being done, and we’re eagerly anticipating a return to normal volumes.”

Hemmes agrees.

“I don’t normally prognosticate, but I’m not worried about this at this point in time. If we have any more events like this, then I’ll start to get concerned, but I don’t think there’s much to worry about right now.”

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In separate news releases to the public on August 3, both Canadian National Railway (CN Rail) and Canadian Pacific Railway (CP Rail) reported a record amount of grain moved during the 2020-21 crop year. For the first time ever, both railways transported more than 30 million tonnes of grain.

CN Rail said it moved more than 31 million tonnes of grain, exceeding the record of 29.4 million during the 2019-20 crop year. In addition, CN also moved 1.1 million tonnes of grain from Western Canada via containers with grain volumes moved from Eastern Canada.

“CN’s grain movement has been resilient during the pandemic, achieving 14 straight months of Canadian grain volume shipment records,” said CN Rail president and chief executive officer JJ Ruest in his company’s news release.

Meanwhile, CP Rail reported 30.62 million tonnes of grain moved, as well as 590,000 tonnes moved in containers, in 2020-21. This is the fourth straight year the railway broke its single-year record for grain movement after reporting 29.52 million tonnes in 2019-20.

“The challenge created by the COVID-19 pandemic over the past 17 months has underpinned the value of strong communication and supply chain collaboration. Despite a sharp reduction in demand this spring, CP and our customers have again broken our movement record, and we celebrate that achievement across the supply chain,” said Joan Hardy, CP Rail’s vice president of sales and marketing, grain and fertilizers in its news release.

Both railways announced new investments in new high-capacity grain hopper cars earlier this year, including CP Rail’s 8,500-foot High Efficiency Product train model. In their news releases, they also acknowledged the reduced yields in Western Canada due to hot and dry conditions.

“We recognize that growing conditions across much of the Prairies have been very challenging as many producers face extremely hot and dry weather this year. Our dedicated team of railroaders will continue to work tirelessly with Canadian farmers, agri-organizations and grain customers to have the resources in place to move the upcoming harvest for the communities we proudly serve,” said Ruest.

“Through May, June and July shipper demand was almost 15 percent below the same period last year, and 25 percent below the fall peak demand levels,” CP Rail said in the release.

CN Rail also touted its proposed merger with American railway Kansas City Southern announced earlier this year, of which CP Rail is also vying for its attention.

“The proposed CN-Kansas City Southern combination will introduce new options for Canadian farmers and grain costumers to ship both grain and processed grain products,” CN Rail’s release said. “It will create a new single-line service to a wider array of destinations in the U.S. and Mexico, and will also create an end-to-end transportation network across North America, enhancing competition, spurring economic growth and delivering benefits to the local communities in which both railroads operate.”

CN Rail published its annual Grain Plan for its stakeholders on July 30, while CP Rail submitted its 2021-22 Grain Service Outlook Report to federal minister of transport Omar Alghabra on July 31.

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