CN to invest C$985m in 2020 to support various projects across Canada

Canadian National (CN) and Kansas City Southern (KCS) has announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement.

Canadian National (CN) has committed C$*985m investment in 2020 to support various projects across Canada as part of its strategic investments to support growing demand. Namely, it has committed to invest C$445m across British Columbia, C$305m across Alberta and C$235m across Quebec.

Investment projects across British Columbia include:

  • Construction of about 3.5 miles of double track between Vancouver and Edmonton, near Glen Valley.
  • Building new sidings on the Edmonton to Prince Rupert corridor to increase capacity for growing demand.
  • Continued investments to continue multi-year infrastructure projects that will increase capacity at the ports of Vancouver and Prince Rupert in collaboration with the Government of Canada, the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority and the Prince Rupert Port Authority.    

Maintenance program highlights include:

  • Replacement of more than 100 miles of rail
  • Installation of over 209,000 new railroad ties
  • Installation of over 46,000 concrete ties
  • Rebuilds of 22 road crossing surfaces
  • Maintenance work on bridges, culverts, signal systems, and other track infrastructure

The ports of Vancouver and Prince Rupert are dynamic gateways to international trade, offering shorter transit times to Asia. At the Port of Vancouver, CN has coal, grain and intermodal terminals. In the Vancouver area, CN has two distribution centres for forest products, two for metals, three for automotive products, and a CN CargoFlo bulk handling centre. In Prince George, CN has an intermodal terminal and another CargoFlo bulk handling facility in Ashcroft.

Planned expansion projects for Alberta include the construction of about 5 miles of double track between Vancouver and Edmonton, near Hinton. Maintenance programme highlights include:

  • Replacement of approximately 71 miles of rail
  • Installation of over 210,000 new railroad ties
  • Rebuilds of 28 road crossing surfaces
  • Maintenance work on bridges, culverts, signal systems, and other track infrastructure

CN handles growing amounts of intermodal container traffic through terminals in Calgary and Edmonton. In Calgary, CN has a logistics park, an automotive distribution facility, a forest products distribution centre and a CN CargoFlo bulk handling facility. In Edmonton, the company has automotive distribution and CargoFlo bulk handling facilities as well as metals and forest products distribution centres. Edmonton and Calgary are also home to major rail classification yards. In Fort McMurray, there is a second metals distribution centre and a third CargoFlo facility.

Finally, maintenance programme highlights for Quebec include:

  • Replacement of more than 20 miles of rail
  • Installation of approximately 140,000 new railroad ties
  • Rebuilds of 47 road crossing surfaces
  • Maintenance work on bridges, culverts, signal systems, and other track infrastructure

Montreal is home to CN’s headquarters, where the company serves the Port of Montreal, where it handles growing numbers of import/export containers. Other CN facilities in Montreal include an intermodal terminal, logistics park, forest products, automotive and metals distribution centres, and a CargoFlo bulk handling facility. Quebec City boasts access to a deep-water port as well as metals, automotive and forest products distribution centres. Quebec City also has a large rail classification yard. CN, Hutchison Ports and the Port of Quebec are working together to pioneer a new intermodal container terminal, with capacity for 700,000 TEUs, and opening scheduled for Spring of 2024.

These major investments are mostly aimed at encouraging the use of rail for long haul needs. The company hopes to support reductions in its customer’s transportation supply chain GHG emissions.

Source: Canadian National

*€:C$1.5/$:C$1.3