Surge of Intermodal Traffic on CN

[ADRIAN BALLAM]

Recently, I was railfanning on CN’s Edson Subdivision, which is part of CN’s mainline to the Pacific Northwest, in Jasper and Hinton, Alberta and noticed that train frequencies seemed quite high. While grain has been a significant commodity for CN over the last couple of years, I noticed what appeared to be a significant amount of intermodal volume moving on the mainline, including a few westbound trains bound for Vancouver or Prince Rupert that contained empty cars, notably one solid flatcar train that was 214 cars. Additionally, the mainly loaded intermodal trains were at least 190 cars long or greater. I am wondering because the pandemic in the US is so much more challenging to control compared to Canada that international shippers are rerouting more containers via Prince Rupert and Vancouver thanks in part to these issues.

 

Does anybody know if there has been a surge in intermodal traffic for CN heading to the Pacific Coast?

[SD70Dude]

I don't know if it has been diverted from American ports, but our intermodal traffic does seem to have increased significantly over the last couple months.  Grain traffic is also staying high this summer.  

We are chronically short of crews right now (like usual) and many laid off employees have been recalled.  Edmonton's Walker Yard has a lot of track rehab going on right now, which is causing lots of congestion that radiates out for hundreds of miles.  

Many of our grain and intermodal trains regularly run at over 200 cars, in the 12,000' to 13,000' range.  Intermodals can sometimes be over 16,000'.  The loaded unit and manifest trains will be loaded down to 0.4 HPT with AC units and around 0.6 HPT with DC units.  

Adrian, what days were you out and where?  I might have waved at you as we went by.  

[ADRIAN BALLAM]

Well sir that is interesting you ask about the dates we were there because my father and I were greeted by quite a few very friendly engineers two different evenings. We observed trains on the following dates at the following locations:

• August 4: Swan Landing (Solomon)
• August 5: Jasper
• August 6: Jasper
• August 7: Jasper
• August 8: Swan Landing (Solomon)

We have a spot next to the railroad near the Athabasca River east of Swan Landing where we were have beautiful morning views of the Rocky's and I can watch the trains all night. We had a number of trains whistle, wave, and/or ding their bell at us when we were camping there, even during the late hours. Particularly on August 8 in the 10 to 11 PM hour, there were four westbounds and three of the four blaired their whistles at us really loudly. They were all also very long (two of those exceed 200 cars). They sounded like they were being very friendly. August 4 we also camped there. We have camped at that spot now four years in a row as it scenic, isolated, assessible to trains (safely of course), wonderful ground to pitch a tent on, and away from civilization. In Jasper, we normally camp at Snaring River.

It also looked like the sand traffic was high. One train on August 8 that I observed in Hinton was 259 cars, of which the majority was sand. The two trains after, one empty grain and one intermodal, also exceeded 200 cars. I don't believe I have ever seen the Edson Sub that busy. I have been railfanning this line pretty regularly for 17 years and there is normally a lull or two (we have experienced painful lulls of three hours but never happened on this trip). It was non-stop. It kind of reminded us of this great train spot called Providence Hill between Spokane and Pasco on BNSF's Lakeside Sub in Eastern Washington. Even CP seemed relatively busy when we proceeded further south to the Laggan Sub.

It's great. It signifies the economy continues to roll on.