CALGARY — Canadian agricultural firm Richardson International will expand eight grain elevators served by CPKC in Western Canada, allowing them to be served in the future by the railroad’s 8,500-foot High Efficiency Product trains.
Work on the elevators in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta will start this summer and be complete by the end of 2024, CPKC and Richardson said in a Monday announcement.
Darwin Sobkow, Richardson president and chief operations officer, said in a press release that the expansion “will increase capacity and efficiency, enabling Richardson to further benefit from CPKC’s single-line network reaching Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. We have strongly supported the CP-KCS combination through the process and look forward to working with CPKC on additional future opportunities for shared growth.”
Richardson currently ships unit trains from 27 CPKC-served elevators in Canada and one in the U.S. The company’s newest elevator, at Carmichael, Sask., is its first 8,500-foot HEP site.
“CPKC is thrilled to have these Richardson elevators added to the growing list of already qualified 8,500-foot HEP sites across western Canada,” said John Brooks, CPKC’s chief marketing officer. “Richardson’s supply chain and CPKC’s operation will benefit from added efficiency, capacity and fluidity with this investment. Richardson’s ability to run longer trains will mean more grain shipped per train, tighter cycles, and more Richardson trains moving across our expanded, single-line network throughout the season.”
CP’s 8,500-foot High Efficiency Product grain trains using the railroad’s newer hoppers can carry more than 40% more grain than its 7,000-foot grain unit trains, as explained in this 2020 press release.
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