GrainsWest Fall 2020

Fall 2020 grainswest.com 13 BY LEE HART “The HEP train model amplified by the new high-capacity grain hopper cars increases grain carrying capacity by more than 40 per cent per train.” At the same time, CN has also invested money to improve the efficiency of its grain trains. In 2018, the company launched a plan to buy 1,000 grain hopper cars over two years to refresh its fleet of 12,000 grain cars and better meet the demands of western farmers. In July 2020, CN announced further plans to acquire an additional 1,500 new-generation, high-capacity grain hopper cars with delivery starting January 2021. This drive to increase efficiency is being implemented across the western Canadian grain handling system. Grain companies have universally supported the move. Where space is available at existing elevators, and certainly with any new builds, siding capacity is being increased to handle the longer trains. Loop track sidings are the preferred design, but South West Terminal has installed three 8,500-foot parallel tracks to accommodate the larger trains. According to Reich, this provides the flexibility, for example, to simultaneously load a grain train on one siding and fertilizer cars on another. Siding designs may very, but grain companies are moving for- ward to increase siding capacity, said Bruce McFadden, Quorum Corporation director of research and analysis, grain industry section. Quorum is solely responsible for the monitoring of Canada's Prairie grain handling and transportation system. As of midsummer 2020, McFadden said there were 24 licensed loop track elevator facilities across Western Canada with eight more under construction. These are expected to be completed by early to mid-2021. McFadden also pointed out that G3 recently opened a new export terminal in Vancouver with a loop track, and Parrish & Heimbecker is rebuilding a terminal facility in British Columbia’s Lower Mainland that involved a hybrid or “semi-loop” design to accommodate longer trains. “The movement to the longer HEP trains and the high-capacity rail cars is definitely being supported by the grain handling infra- structure,” said McFadden. “Whether it is at the elevator location on the Prairies or at the export terminal, the new design is being incorporated. “Any move to improve the efficiency of our grain handling and transportation system is important and positive,” he said. “It is a very competitive industry in a global sense, and particularly considering some of the distances the Canadian industry faces in getting commodities to tidewater, any efficiency is welcome.” ACP Rail HEP train enters a loop track-equippedG3 terminal. Grain handling capacity is being boosted acrossWestern Canada. Photo:CourtesyofCPRail