Joan Hardy is CP's vice president of sales and marketing for grain and fertilizer.
She says they attribute that to the efficiency and effectiveness of their customers, supply chains, and the infrastructure that they have built and developed.
"Also to our own operating model and our focus on moving grain. So in January, we moved 2.29 million metric tons of Canadian grain and grain products, so that was a new record. And, in fact, we've moved now crop year to date, more than 15 million metric tons of Canadian grain and grain products."
Last week, during crop week 28 CP reported another record week of grain shipments despite some key challenges.
Hardy says they ended up having a derailment in the mountains.
The derailment which happened in a tunnel early in the week was on the eastern edge of British Columbia, near Rogers.
She notes trying to clear equipment in a tunnel in the dead of winter is always very challenging, but the CP operating team was able to do so effectively and efficiently while making sure safety was a priority.
"They were able to clear that derailment within about three days. So during that period of time, we had pretty limited access to and from the West Coast, which is a very, very important corridor for grain. Despite having that outage on our main lines, we actually broke a record for the amount the amount of grain and grain products that we moved in Canada for week 28."
She says despite having that outage on the main line they were able to move 524,000 metric tons.
That surpassed their previous crop week 28 record by about five per cent which was set in February of 2020.
CP's car order fulfillment has remained pretty much on track.
Hardy says they have been spotting cars throughout the winter, and are pretty much in line with their grain plan target of 4350 grain hoppers per week.
"Obviously, there are ups and some downs, but consistently, on average, we've been meeting those targets."
She attributes CP's grain movement success to their investment in the network spending north of $1.5 to $1.6 billion in some years of capital back into our network.
"Maintaining the network from a capital perspective, but also upgrading the network, adding sightings, expanding yards. Adding tracks, adding centralized traffic control, doing things that allow our network to be more efficient."
Hardy points out that CP is also using technology in a very effective way allowing them to be much more effective operators, particularly in the wintertime.
Another key factor, she says, is their customers have invested heavily in their networks for the country and at the terminal.
Source : Steinbach Online