(The Canadian Press distrbuted the following article by Allan Swift on November 20.)
MONTREAL — Canadian Pacific Railway is embarking on a major renewal of its transcontinental intermodal fleet, executives said Thursday.
The program involves acquiring 5,500 new double-stack cars, extending track sidings in northern Ontario, making longer trains and adding locomotives in the middle of each train, executives said in a presentation to analysts in Montreal. Intermodal trains carry the steel containers that also move on ships and trucks. CP Rail’s three intermodal corridors are Montreal-Chicago, Vancouver-Chicago and Montreal-Vancouver. The containers consist primarily of consumer goods made in Asia.
Pat Pender, vice-president of product design and customer services, said the investment will allow the Calgary-based railway to have fewer but longer trains, saving costs in fuel and labour.
Each train will be able to carry 28 per cent more containers, while there will be 16 per cent fewer train starts once the entire fleet is renewed, said Pender.
The order will be composed of 3,900 cars that are 53 feet, or 16 metres long, and 1,600 that are 40 feet, or 12.2 metres.
Pender said the new trains will start to be introduced in January and should all be in service by the fourth quarter of 2004.
Spokesman Len Cocolicchio said the intermodal service between Vancouver and the continental railway hub of Chicago is CPR’s fastest-growing corridor and is attracting new business.
“We’ve seen the benefit of more shippers calling at Vancouver as their first port of call in North America,” said Cocolicchio. “New shippers have tried our service and they like it.”
Cocolicchio said intermodal requires a high level of reliability because containers carry mainly service-sensitive consumer products.
“When a flyer arrives at your door saying a particular good is going to be on sale on Wednesday in your Canadian Tire store, they need the goods in the store,” he said.
The new trains will be a maximum of 9,600 feet long, or almost three kilometres. The maximum-length trains will be west-bound only; East-bound trains will be a maximum of 7,200 feet, or 2.2 kilometres, which will take to the sidings when passing. The average train length now is 6,000 feet, or 1.8 kilometres.
Under the program, 18 sidings will be lengthened to 7,500 feet, or 2.25 kilometres, to allow the longer trains to cross paths.
In winter, trains have to be shorter because air leaks cause brakes to be applied on rail cars towards the rear of the train. Adding a middle locomotive in winter, a new concept, will increase the air supply to the brakes, hopefully enabling CP to run the longer trains all year.
Cocolicchio said another benefit is the new railcars will make a more homogenous fleet, reducing the mix of car types to make handling more efficient.
CP Rail will have a net reduction of 1,300 cars once the fleet is renewed.
The new cars will be leased from TTX Company, an industry car-leasing company that belongs to the large railways.
The company did not reveal the cost of the renewal.
CP Rail is Canada’s second-biggest railway with a 22,500-kilometre network stretching from Montreal to Vancouver, and into the U.S. northeast and Midwest regions.
The company’s stock gained 56 cents to $37.28 on the Toronto Stock Exchange Thursday.