Both of Canada’s railways posted record amounts of grain movement for the crop year ended July 31, carrying a combined 54 million tonnes to market.
CP Rail, serving the southern part of the grain belt, moved 26.8 million tonnes of grain and grain products during the 12 months. That was a 2.8 per cent increase over 2017. CP officials attribute the increased haul to “tight co-ordination across the supply chain” that improved efficiency even during the difficult winter months.
The increase was aided by the gradual rollout of the 8,500-foot High Efficiency Product train model that entails only hopper cars, and by nearly 1,500 new high-capacity hopper cars.
That high-capacity hopper car fleet will increase to 1,900 by the end of this year.
CNR, the railway serving mostly the northern half off the grain belt, carried a record 27.4 million tonnes of bulk grain during the period, for an increase of eight per cent.
The movements beat the previous record in 2016-17 of 26.3 million tonnes.
CN attributed the increased movement to the $7.4 billion long-term investment to improve the railway.
Ron Walter can be reached at ronjoy@sasktel.net
