(Regular updates will be available on the Alberta Pulse Growers website.)

Pulse Canada and the CSCA are partners of the Ag Transport Coalition (ATC)*, which tracks performance of the Canadian railway network for the movement of grain.

A new grain network status report has been created to provide stakeholders with comprehensive insight on the performance of the Canadian rail system for the 2020-2021 grain year.  The report provides information and data on the status of the rail network as of midnight the previous day.

The railway performance data reported in these reports reflect the performance of rail shipments specifically for grain shippers participating in the Ag Transport Coalition’s railway performance measurement program – estimated to encompass approximately 90-95% of western Canadian originated grain shipments by rail.

December 2, 2020: Report Synopsis

Loads on Wheels

· Loads on wheels declined significantly yesterday (-9%) for the second consecutive day, falling below 11,600 cars.  Total loads on wheels have now declined by 2,000 cars from a high of more than 13,500 cars over the prior two days with 75% of that decline in the Vancouver corridor.  This reflects system unloads outpacing new cars entering the system by a factor of more than 2:1 over the last 48 hours; even more pronounced for Vancouver at 3:1.

Cars Not Moving

· The system count of loads not moving increased for the fourth straight day rising to more than 3,100 cars on a system basis and more than 3,000 for CN and CP specifically.  Yesterday’s increase reflects improvement on CP after five consecutive days of increasing counts while CN saw a 42% jump overnight to more than 1,600 cars.

Port Unloads

· West coast unloads (1,181) declined from the prior day reflecting lower unloads for both west coast ports.  Thunder Bay had another strong day reporting 393 unloads.

* The Ag Transportation Coalition is comprised of the Canadian Canola Growers Association (CCGA), Alberta Wheat Commission (AWC), Pulse Canada, Manitoba Pulse Growers Association (MPGA), Western Grain Elevator Association (WGEA), Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission, Inland Terminal Association of Canada (ITAC) and the Canadian Special Crops Association (CSCA).All daily network status reports are available on the Pulse Canada website

For more information, go to www.agtransportcoalition.com