Canada's rail system is ready for the next harvest, CN says

Canada's rail system will be able to accommodate the new grain harvest, CN officials said in a press release issued yesterday.

The grain supply chain also will be able to address the excess carryover from last year's extraordinary crop by next spring given Agriculture Canada's latest 2014-15 crop forecast of 59 million tons, which is slightly higher than a trend-line average crop, they added.

CN has a solid throughput run rate — the Class I has spotted about 5,500 grain hopper cars per week since April, CN officials said. The railroad's wait-list has declined significantly over the past few months due to a high level of order cancellations, they said.

"CN posted a record performance in the 2013-14 crop-year just ending — our movement of Western Canadian grain was a full 25 percent greater than past average performance," said CN President and Chief Executive Officer Claude Mongeau.

Despite a grain handling and transportation system that now appears to be "fully back in sync," Mongeau is urging the Canadian government to carefully limit the scope of new rail regulations that could impact the grain supply chain.

"This positive development is very encouraging and calls for careful balance from the federal government in how it pursues the regulatory agenda it announced in haste in the midst of a very difficult winter," he said. "As there is no structural problem to fix, the government should … focus on encouraging true supply chain collaboration. CN urges the federal government to adopt such a commercial approach and is ready to play its key role in the grain handling and transportation system for the benefit of Canadian grain growers."