(Alice McFarlane/farmnewsNOW Staff)

By Alice McFarlane

Rail service

Improvements coming to rail lines

Apr 5, 2019 | 4:50 PM

CN Rail says grain movement is picking up after severe cold weather this winter.

Vice President Sean Finn said CN hopper car deliveries are back on schedule.

“Compared to last year even though we did have some challenging weeks in February this year, because of our capital investments, our crews, our locomotives we can recover quicker,” Finn said. “Within four weeks of getting out of the challenging operating conditions we’re current when it comes to grain orders. It’s how quickly you can recover when you have some really cold weather for sustainable days.”

Finn said CN Rail is moving a lot of cars in both directions.

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“That’s a good way to catch up and you can do so on a quick basis and allows us to be ready for the coming weeks. As Thunder Bay opens, we’ll be ready for even more capacity,” Finn said. “We’re going to see numbers go up from 500 car loads a week to probably close to 6,000 when you include private cars.”

Finn said plans for the prairies this year include capital spending of $3.9 billion which in two years will total $7.4 billion — a record amount for CN.

“Eighty miles of double tracking between Winnipeg and Edmonton. The work has already started, the grading has started and the excavation to do so,” Finn said. “All this is done to create both additional fluidity and also resilience. When there are challenges in operations, we have the capacity to move a train out of the way and trains move in a very fluid fashion.”

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alice.mcfarlane@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @AliceMcF