advertisement

---

Canadian National Railway Co. has taken the wraps off its $4 million Edmonton Grain Distribution Centre in Edmonton, Alberta, which will enable western prairie farmers to ship grains and oilseeds in containers overseas. The facility is projected to annually handle 20,000 containers, most of which will move to the Port of Vancouver, British Columbia.

The terminal features a 20-car capacity siding, enclosed loading facility, container lift, two tilt tables, and computerized loading and inventory management systems.

Previously, farmers had to load crops into covered hoppers and rail the freight to Vancouver, where the cargo was loaded into containers, trucked to docks and loaded onto ships. Now, the freight can be directly transferred from farm trucks into containers at the Edmonton facility.

“Eliminating an initial hopper car movement will lower many shippers’ costs,” said Peter Marshall, CN senior vice president-Western Region, in a prepared statement.

In fall 2007, CN will begin moving containers to a new terminal being built in Prince Rupert, B.C., providing farmers another transportation outlet to access world markets, the Class I said.