CN Rail back on track for grain shipments

It was a tough winter in terms of grain movement for Canada's railways.

David Przednowek, assistant vice president of grain for CN Rail, commented on the difficult conditions, which included large snowfall amounts and extreme cold.

"Through the winter, it really started around Christmas and didn't really let up but of course prior to that we had the three weeks where the main line between Vancouver and Kamloops was out of action and having three weeks not being able to utilize that vital artery created a huge accumulation of traffic and then the winter weather that we had did not help our cause. At the same time coming out of that now, going into the third week of March, we're basically current to demand which is from the perspective of grain movement, which is positive to see."

He says CN will be monitoring spring flooding as the spring melt continues.

Przednowek noted the drought of 2021 had an impact on what they were shipping over the winter.

"On the Canadian grain demand front, from December forward, we've seen demand for CN supply hoppers for western Canadian grain movement running at 40 to 50 per cent of what it was the year previous. You go from the largest crop on record to a one in twenty year drought event, that's going to have a big impact on demand. We expect that demand is going to be light as we go forward here given the high percentage of grain that's already been moved out of The Prairies."

He adds they've had a steady program of feed corn running north from states such as Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois.