Railways unveil plans to clear grain backlog in Western Canada

Mar 16, 2018

CN and CP plan to invest heavily in grain service improvements

By Diego Flammini
News Reporter
Farms.com

Canada’s national railways have released their plans to help relieve the grain backlog in Western Canada.

Minister of Transport Marc Garneau and Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Lawrence MacAulay mandated on Mar. 9 that Canadian National (CN) and Canadian Pacific (CP) railways publish their plans online by Wednesday.

Specifically, Garneau and MacAulay wanted immediate actions to relieve the congestion and longer-term steps to maintain fluid service in Western Canada.

In terms of immediate steps, CN promised to spot (meaning precisely position a railroad car for loading or unloading) 5,000 grain cars by the end of month.

The railway has also leased 125 new locomotives as of Mar. 17. Its goal is to lease 130.

Other measures include “deploying qualified company officers across Western Canada to run trains and move customer traffic,” and offering employees incentives to delay retirement or postpone vacations to help move grain.

Looking ahead, CN plans to spend more than $250 million on infrastructure and yard improvements.

The railway will build five stretches of double track in eastern Alberta and Saskatchewan and a new long section of double track west of Edmonton on the railway’s mainline corridor to B.C. New yard capacities in Edmonton and Manitoba are also part of the improvement plan.

CN also plans for additional passing sidings between Prince Rupert B.C., and Jasper, Alta.

Part of CP’s immediate plan to move more grain includes putting more cars on tracks.

The railway “placed 10 per cent more empty rail cars in the country in Week 32 compared to the week prior, a further sign of incremental gains achieved,” Keith Creel, CP’s president and CEO, wrote in CP’s plan.

CP can transport more grain when the Port of Thunder Bay re-opens near the end of March, he added.

In terms of improving service in the future, CP has added 700 new employees and plans to acquire 100 additional locomotives.

CP has also budgeted for improvements.

“We have earmarked between $1.35 and $1.5 billion for capital improvements this year,” the plan says.

Video: 2025 USDA December Crop Report a “Dud” + Trump $12 Billion U.S. Farm Aid

The USDA December crop report was friendly corn, neutral soybeans and bearish wheat. The USDA did surprise and increase the 25/26 U.S. corn export forecast to a new record high at 3.2 billion bushels now up 12% vs. last year vs. prior at +9% vs. the export pace to date up 30% the best in 10 years even higher than 20/21! The USDA left the 25/26 U.S. soybean export pace unchanged at 1.635 billion bushels. Higher global wheat supplies will remain a weight and headwind for wheat into year end and start of 2026.
Mexico is now the #1 buyer of U.S. corn, soybeans (usually China), wheat and pork!
USDA also released its long-term early projections but expect more changes by February of 2026.
Trump announces a $12 billion U.S. farmer aid package to be paid out by February 28, 2026. This helps no one but the ag banks, farm equipment companies, seed and fertilizer companies. It does prevent more farmer bushels from being sold near-term but is not bullish grain prices long-term. The Trump administration should focus on increasing U.S. domestic demand and propping up grain futures so farmers can cover their higher costs, up since COVID of 2020.
The China U.S. soybean purchase tracker now stands at 4.521 mmt or 38% of the 12 mmt promised by China at year end or is it end of February or the growing season? Why the discrepancy vs. the fact sheet. The optics are poor for the Trump administration.
After surging to contract highs U.S. natural gas futures plunged over 30+% in just 5-trading days!
Silver traded to new record highs as the debasement and de dollarization trade continued but technicals remain overbought near-term.
Soybean futures remained in correction mode after the funds went record long futures on Nov. 19 +233,000 contracts but the $10.80 support should hold into year end when the fund profit taking/liquidation comes to an end from the year end, end of month and end of quarter selling.
The U.S. Fed cut interest rates for the 3rd time by 25 basis points to a range of 3.50 – 3.75% and they will only cut one more time in 2026 and once in 20267/ but when Powell is gone next April the replacement is willing to cut more aggressively and we could see U.S. interest rates fall to 2.0% very bullish for ag and stocks as it could reignite inflation into 2027.
After 2 months of being drier than normal in Brazil the rains have finally arrived for the 1st half of December, and a record crop is still in the cards but if this pattern continues and verifies it could start to delay the harvest. Argentina after being too wet has turned dry but they are too small, compared top Brazil in the grand picture.
The Canadian dollar surged to $0.73 after better-than-expected employment data with 180,000 new jobs in the past 3-months and 3rd quarter GDP at +2.6% but this could be short-lived.
The latest CFTC report as of 11-19-2025 reported a record long fund position in soybeans at +233,000 contracts when 2026 March soybean futures peaked on 11-19-25 at $11.724/bu.