On Canadian Pacific’s rail operations in
the harshest winter in 60 years
You may have seen and heard a lot of
confusing and contradictory information
in the news recently about the railways
and their reported inability to move
Canadian grain to ports in the face of a
record-setting harvest.
As you may expect this is a very
complicated issue. I would like to set
the record straight and provide some
context and facts.
Anyone in Canada or the Northern U.S.
has experienced the frigid reality of
the past few months. Moving consumer
goods and other commodities like grain
has been severely impacted by harsh
winter temperatures not seen in more
than 60 years. Environment Canada
reports that this winter’s extreme cold
temperatures have created an
unprecedented low average temperature -
the coldest December/January since
1949/1950. We know “winter happens every
year” which leads us to conduct
extensive winter preparations. Despite
these preparations, sustained cold below
-25 degrees C is a tipping point for
railways, as it is for other modes of
transportation. The last three months
have been exceptional, with 49 days
below this temperature in the Canadian
central prairies vs. 25 days on average.
When the weather is this cold, we must
take steps such as reducing train
lengths to continue to move freight and
ensure the safety of our employees and
the communities in which we operate.
I’ll be the first to admit that our
usual service levels aren’t being met
during this period when all commodities
in the entire supply chain are impacted
by this brutal weather. Despite this,
the women and men of CP remain on the
job 24/7, exposed to this weather as
they keep the railway operating even
while, in some cases, grain elevators
have temporarily suspended loading
operations.
Distinct from operating conditions,
Western Canadian farmers last year
produced an extraordinary grain crop of
80 million metric tonnes (MMT), 27%
above the previous 2008/09 record and
37% above the five year average. This
increase was not forecasted by anyone,
including grain growers themselves.
CP is moving more grain than ever in its
history. This crop year CP has moved
more grain than the previous year,
itself a record for grain movements in
Canada. In February alone, despite the
weather, we managed a 15% increase in
grain shipments.
Moving grain from the farm to the port
is a complex pipeline involving many
parties. Canada’s largest ever grain
crop and this winter’s weather created
the “perfect storm.”
Some have called for CP to add more rail
cars and locomotives. Adding more cars
to the system when it is congested and
being negatively impacted by weather is
exactly the wrong thing to do. It is
like adding more cars to a highway at
rush hour – everything moves that much
slower. To improve the situation, all of
us in the grain supply-chain must be
accountable for our respective pieces on
a 24/7 basis. We can’t move trains out
of the prairies if rail cars haven’t
been loaded and we can’t return empty
cars back to the prairies if trains are
sitting idle waiting for port terminals
to unload them.
The grain supply chain will return to
very high levels of performance over the
coming weeks when these extreme cold
temperatures lift. In the meantime, we
need all the parties to step up and
provide commitments and exert additional
effort.
We’ll do our part. We expect to move
240,000 carloads of Canadian grain this
crop year, a more than 20% increase over
last year’s record.
We are having productive discussions
with governments. With their help, I am
confident that we will tone down the
rhetoric and move forward with a
coordinated transportation system for
the betterment of all Canadian shippers,
including grain producers.
Let’s do this together!
E. Hunter Harrison
Chief Executive Officer
Canadian Pacific
the harshest winter in 60 years
You may have seen and heard a lot of
confusing and contradictory information
in the news recently about the railways
and their reported inability to move
Canadian grain to ports in the face of a
record-setting harvest.
As you may expect this is a very
complicated issue. I would like to set
the record straight and provide some
context and facts.
Anyone in Canada or the Northern U.S.
has experienced the frigid reality of
the past few months. Moving consumer
goods and other commodities like grain
has been severely impacted by harsh
winter temperatures not seen in more
than 60 years. Environment Canada
reports that this winter’s extreme cold
temperatures have created an
unprecedented low average temperature -
the coldest December/January since
1949/1950. We know “winter happens every
year” which leads us to conduct
extensive winter preparations. Despite
these preparations, sustained cold below
-25 degrees C is a tipping point for
railways, as it is for other modes of
transportation. The last three months
have been exceptional, with 49 days
below this temperature in the Canadian
central prairies vs. 25 days on average.
When the weather is this cold, we must
take steps such as reducing train
lengths to continue to move freight and
ensure the safety of our employees and
the communities in which we operate.
I’ll be the first to admit that our
usual service levels aren’t being met
during this period when all commodities
in the entire supply chain are impacted
by this brutal weather. Despite this,
the women and men of CP remain on the
job 24/7, exposed to this weather as
they keep the railway operating even
while, in some cases, grain elevators
have temporarily suspended loading
operations.
Distinct from operating conditions,
Western Canadian farmers last year
produced an extraordinary grain crop of
80 million metric tonnes (MMT), 27%
above the previous 2008/09 record and
37% above the five year average. This
increase was not forecasted by anyone,
including grain growers themselves.
CP is moving more grain than ever in its
history. This crop year CP has moved
more grain than the previous year,
itself a record for grain movements in
Canada. In February alone, despite the
weather, we managed a 15% increase in
grain shipments.
Moving grain from the farm to the port
is a complex pipeline involving many
parties. Canada’s largest ever grain
crop and this winter’s weather created
the “perfect storm.”
Some have called for CP to add more rail
cars and locomotives. Adding more cars
to the system when it is congested and
being negatively impacted by weather is
exactly the wrong thing to do. It is
like adding more cars to a highway at
rush hour – everything moves that much
slower. To improve the situation, all of
us in the grain supply-chain must be
accountable for our respective pieces on
a 24/7 basis. We can’t move trains out
of the prairies if rail cars haven’t
been loaded and we can’t return empty
cars back to the prairies if trains are
sitting idle waiting for port terminals
to unload them.
The grain supply chain will return to
very high levels of performance over the
coming weeks when these extreme cold
temperatures lift. In the meantime, we
need all the parties to step up and
provide commitments and exert additional
effort.
We’ll do our part. We expect to move
240,000 carloads of Canadian grain this
crop year, a more than 20% increase over
last year’s record.
We are having productive discussions
with governments. With their help, I am
confident that we will tone down the
rhetoric and move forward with a
coordinated transportation system for
the betterment of all Canadian shippers,
including grain producers.
Let’s do this together!
E. Hunter Harrison
Chief Executive Officer
Canadian Pacific