When it comes to how much grain and processed grain product is moving off the Prairies by rail, the focus is always on hopper cars, along with tank cars and boxcars. Through June 2019, over the first 11 months of the 2018-19 crop year, CN had moved a million tonnes more grain (+4%) from western Canada (25.5 MMT) compared to the previous record of 24.5 MMT set back in 2016-17.

And then there’s intermodal. All of the grain moving out of the Prairies in intermodal containers is in addition to that volume, and CN leads this segment of the market. Shipping grain by intermodal unlocks additional capacity for grain producers, and to producers, whether it’s a tonne moving in a hopper car or in a 20 foot export container, it’s a tonne delivered and a tonne paid for. CN moves over one million tonnes of grain out of the Prairies yearly in containers alone. That’s the same amount of volume that three or four high throughput elevators might move over the course of the year.

It’s like picking up an intermodal terminal from the port and dropping it into the middle of the Prairies – and today, the CN Saskatoon Intermodal Terminal is ground zero for this program. The equivalent of around 200 hopper cars per week of grain move in and out of this facility – and during the fall and winter when demand for grain movement is at its peak, every bit counts.

Right in the heart of southern Saskatchewan, East Regina Intermodal Terminal, Canada’s first privately operated intermodal facility will be served exclusively by CN. This facility represents an opportunity for grain shippers in southern Saskatchewan to tap into CN’s proven model for moving grain by container, with CN rail service to the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf Coasts. CN and Intermobil are working together to give customers more supply chain solutions in a dynamic marketplace.