Targeted to be finished this fall, the $160 million expansion will increase CPR’s rail capacity in Western Canada some 12% which translates into more than 400 freight cars per day. The 25 projects are to extend sidings in all with 22 of them to lay double track.
CPR and the Vancouver Port Authority (VPA) signed a cooperation agreement to work on joint capacity development. As explained by the railroad, included are joint initiatives to influence marketing and domestic public policy in order to en hand the competitiveness, operational efficiencies and customer service at the port and to mutually ensure that “the Port of Vancouver is the most secure port system on the West Coast of America.”
Although CPR and VPA are working together, the organizations realize that there remains a great deal of work involving all modes, Provincial and federal governments and private sector involvement in an integrated transportation system.
“We have the opportunity to harness the tremendous growth of North America’s trade with Asia,” says Rob Ritchie, CPR President and CEO. “It is going to require a commitment on behalf of all our partners, including the three levels of government, to make that happen, as well as a coordinated approach that adds the right infrastructure at the right time and with the right investment climate.”
Captain Gordon Houston, VPA President and CEO, adds, “We are committed to leading the development of an integrated transportation system in Western Canada that can drive trade and economic development throughout British Columbia and across the country. It is only by working together with our transportation partners that the Port of Vancouver will capture the significant growth opportunities projected over the next 15 years for the benefit of the growth of the Province, its workers and Canada’s import- and export-dependent industries.”