(The Canadian Press distributed the following article on December 20.)
CALGARY — Canadian Pacific Railway will be able to increase the length of its intermodal trains due to the introduction of mid-train remote-control units that mimick the actions of engineers in leading locomotives, says CPR.
The remote-control units enable CPR to run intermodal trains approaching three kilometres in length through the winter, when they were previously shortened because of air-pressure loss in colder temperatures.
CPR pioneered the use of remote-control locomotive technology in its western Canada coal trains in the 1970s. CPR is now adapting the same concept to intermodal trains that carry trucks and containers on rail cars.
Last year, intermodal generated almost $900 million of CPR’s $3.5 billion in freight revenue.
The railway is also reconstituting its intermodal fleet, putting in service 5,500 new cars that can carry double-stacked containers. About 2,000 of the new intermodal cars will be in service by the end of this month. The remainder will arrive in 2004.
The net result will be an estimated 28 per cent increase in containers per train and 16-per-cent decrease in intermodal train starts.