After the significant disruptions experienced last week, service has started to return to levels seen prior to the shutdown of CN’s main line through Jasper, according to real-time network visibility provider RailState, which independently tracks all freight movements across Canada.
For the first two weeks of July, an average of 19 trains per day moved eastbound and 17.5 moved westbound through this subdivision. On Sunday, July 28, RailState sensors captured 18 eastbound trains and 15 westbound trains through this area.
Impact on Exports – Port of Vancouver
With the main line closed, westbound train movements into the Port of Vancouver “fell sharply,” according to RailState. In the weeks leading up to last week’s shutdown, CN train volume into the Port of Vancouver averaged 94.5 trains per week. Only 51 trains traveled westbound into the Port between July 22-28, a 46% decrease from the recent average.
“Travel times into the Port of Vancouver were not impacted by the shutdown, and actually decreased slightly last week compared to the recent average,” reported RailState. It took an average of 13.3 hours to travel from Heffley, BC, to Chilliwack, BC, which was “five hours faster than the recent average of 18 hours seen since the beginning of June.”
“Eastbound out of the Port of Vancouver region was a different story,” according to RailState. With trains unable to move further east through the Jasper area, trains were held, causing “backups and slower movement eastbound through the Directional Running Zone.” The average travel time for CN trains moving from Mission City, BC, to Heffley, BC, was 34 hours, more than twice as long as the average travel time of 16.6 hours over the previous seven weeks.
Port of Prince Rupert
Train movements through the Port of Prince Rupert followed a similar trend as the Port of Vancouver, according to RailState. Train volume into the Port fell to 24 trains between July 22-28, a 42% decrease from recent trends.
Westbound travel times were unaffected. RailState’s sensor is just east of Prince George at Wolverine, BC. Travel times from Wolverine to the Port averaged 25 hours over the past eight weeks and remained within a range of 22.6 hours to 27.6 hours each week.
Eastbound travel times, RailState says, “increased dramatically” last week as trains were held in the Prince George area. The average travel time to move from Prince Rupert to Prince George increased to 72.4 hours last week.
Trains Rerouted Onto CPKC
According to RailState, CN reported some rerouting of westbound trains onto CPKC. Trains moved south from Edmonton on the Camrose subdivision and then onto CPKC westbound out of Calgary on the Laggan subdivision and through to Kamloops.
RailState found two CN trains using this detour, both intermodal trains. One passed west of Calgary on July 25 and the other on July 27. No other trains appear to have been moved on this detour route, noted RailState, which says it will provide additional updates during the recovery from this disruption, as well as month-end reports on intermodal movements, activity through Canadian ports, and cross border rail volume.
