CN has big plans for its Northern Route

With the container port project working away towards its completion of phase one next fall, Canadian National Railways is busy working out their own plans to service the latest gateway to the world.

In a story from the current edition of the Northern View, CN officials outlined some of their ideas for the near future and for a little further down the line. With a promise of full capacity on the line and employment opportunities to go with it, the railway seems quite bullish on the project and its potential.

The full story was found in the Northern View of this week.


Sales Director outlines CN's vision
By Shaun Thomas
The Northern View
Oct 11 2006

CN Rail is busy preparing for the opening of phase one of the container port at Fairview Terminal in Prince Rupert, and the company's Sales Director for Intermodal Transportation Doug Hayden-Luck said the communities along the Highway 16 corridor should prepare for some of the changes and opportunities that will be coming.

In terms of traffic, Hayden-Luck said there will be four trains daily running along the route, which puts the line at full capacity, but noted that traffic wouldn't reach that level until early 2008. As well, the company is purchasing 3,000 cars exclusively to handle the containers from the port. With that increase in traffic, the company will be looking to add employees along the line.

"We have a lot of support from communities. We have had a couple of public exchanges with communities on the line regarding not only the export opportunities that are being presented but also about employment. We know that once the container port comes online we will have to bring on additional crews, additional support staff, additional mechanical crews and we know there will be a substantial increase in our employee numbers in the North."

"Today there is very little stuffing capacity on the line because there has never been a container outlet at the port. In order to fill that capacity we will require stuffing facilities and there are various types of stuffing facilities that can be created from very rudimentary forklift operations to specialized gravity feed stuffing facilities for certain commodities...

Many shipping lines today with refrigerated commodities run a barge to Alaska or a barge to Seattle, and I understand the shippers see a need for a refrigerated packing facility in Prince Rupert, so there may be the need to bring cold storage and a refrigerated packing plant to the city" he said.

According to Hayden-Luck, CN has drawn a line at Smithers where it would be more economical for businesses east of the town to send goods to Prince George to be packed and communities west of and including Smithers to ship their goods to Prince Rupert.

Hayden-Luck will be speaking at the Change Brings Opportunity Conference on November 8 and 9, and says people looking to benefit from the port should attend.

"I think this would be good for anyone interested in the export opportunities, people interested in other types of services that will be required, whether it be stuffing or cold refrigeration, people looking to create opportunity for themselves and labour groups that may want their members to benefit."