Container Port to be a big boost for CN’s revenues

CN is singing the praises of the Fairview Container Port at meetings across North America, at a recent transportation conference in Chicago; the railway’s CEO Hunter Harrison said that Prince Rupert is going to be a very big part of the railroad’s future.

“This will be a big part of our growth,” said the CN CEO as he suggested that once Fairview is up and running, CN’s annual revenues could be boosted by as much as 300 to 500 million dollars. If it’s anything that investors like to hear it’s an increase of revenues by more than half a billion dollars!

With the first phase expected to be on line by the end of 2007, CN estimates that 750,000 TEU’s (20 foot equivalent units) could be handled through Rupert and tap into the railroad’s network of lines that run through Canada, into the heartland of the USA and down to Mexico. Long range plans call for over 1.2 million TEU’s to be handled after phase two comes into being and there is now talk of a further expansion to the Rupert plans to add even more capacity.

It makes for a port that when all is said and done could offer shippers the opportunity to move their goods from Asia up to ten days faster than the current backlog of shipments at the Long Beach California ports.

While there’s not much to see at Fairview at the moment, CN’s anticipated revenue stream seems to provide for a pretty broad vision for what is to come and where we’re going to be going in the not too distant future!