(The following story by Mark Nielsen appeared on the Prince George Citizen website on October 16.)
PRINCE GEORGE, B.C. — A bit more than two weeks before the first ship is scheduled to arrive at the Fairview container terminal in Prince Rupert, CN Rail opened its $20-million intermodal and distribution centre terminal for business in Prince George Monday.
Company spokeswoman Kelli Svendsen said the announcement means the facility is now ready to accept customers who want to use the service to export their goods to Asia. The first container ship, operated by Shanghai-based Cosco Container Lines Americas Inc., the world’s sixth-largest shipping company, is expected to arrive in Prince Rupert on Oct. 31.
“The distribution centre at the Prince George terminal will be stuffing the empty containers that are coming back, so we’re just working with customers now to fill those containers on the first trip back,” Svendsen said. “That’s what we’re preparing for, to get containers full to go back to Asia.”
Prince Rupert is up to 58 hours of sailing time closer to Asia than other west coast North American ports, Jim Vena, senior vice-president of CN’s Western Region, noted in a press release.
“The new Prince George facility is ideally situated to tap backhaul export opportunities, filling empty containers moving back to Asia through Prince Rupert with lumber, panels, woodpulp, paper, as well as ores, plastics and some metal products,” he said.
“The new traffic will not only boost CN business, but will also generate new employment opportunities in the Prince George area.”
In all 13 people are working there now and that number will rise as business increases, Svendsen said.
The distribution centre has an 84,000-square-foot warehouse and 10 acres of outside storage. A full range of services will be provided by CN WorldWide North America, including product transfer, inspection, consolidation-deconsolidation, inventory control and transportation.
Loaded containers will be lifted onto railway flatcars at CN’s new adjacent intermodal rail yard, which features two, 2,400-foot pad tracks, trucking and truck-pick-up capabilities and an automated gate system.
It has the capacity to handle 25,000 forty-foot containers annually and CN is providing daily service along its B.C. North Line from Prince George to Prince Rupert, 720 kilometres to the west.
In addition to the $20 million spent on the terminal, located in CN’s north yard off First Avenue, CN has also spent about $100 million for 50 new locomotives, $20 million to $30 million for sidings and other track work, and has leased more than 2,000 intermodal car platforms.
The $170-million Fairview port, centred on three giant cranes, can handle 500,000 containers a year. A $650-million second phase will raise that capacity to two million containers by 2011.
Plans have also been started for a second terminal that would add a further two to three million containers worth of capacity by 2015. The Port of Vancouver handles 1.5 million containers a year.