MONTREAL — Canadian National Railway has announced Falcon Premium intermodal service it operates with Union Pacific and Grupo Mexico’s Ferromex has received the Silver Container (Contenedor de Plata) award from the Asociación Mexicana de Transporte Intermodal.
The organization is Mexico’s leading intermodal transport association, promoting best practices in cross-border logistics. The award recognizes outstanding achievements in intermodal transportation between Mexico, the U.S., and Canada.
“We are honored to receive AMTI’s Silver Container Award for our Falcon Premium service,” Derek Taylor, CN’s chief field operating officer, said in a press release. “CN is proud to lead the way in delivering a seamless, all-rail interline service that reflects our commitment to innovation, exceptional customer service, and sustainability across the North American supply chain.”
“We’re honored to receive this recognition and proud to collaborate with CN and GMXT to provide customers a winning solution that takes trucks off congested highways and reduces greenhouse gas emissions by up to 75%,” said Kenny Rocker, UP executive vice president, sales and marketing. Added Luis Hernández, vice president intermodal at GMXT, “Falcon Premium is becoming one of the more efficient means to reach North America in a sustainable way. We will continue working hand in hand with CN and UP on projects like this one.”
More information on the award is available at AMTI’s website.
The three operators launched Falcon Premium in May 2023 via UP’s Eagle Pass, Texas, gateway [see “CN, UP, and Ferromex tighten …” Trains News Wire, May 2, 2023]. It links Toronto and Detroit with Monterrey, Mexico; more information is available on CN’s website.
This only works so long as all three parties play nice. CPKC doesn’t have that problem but needs to leverage what they have… but that takes money.
CPKC’s route is a three-party endeavor on a good day. Relying on UP much of the way from Robstown to Beaumont through the busy Houston terminal (something that UP’s route avoids altogether), and crossing the busy Chicagoland terminal just to get to its NS trackage rights to Detroit, where there better not be any doublestacks for the tunnel under the St. Clair River; if so, more dependency on another railroad (CSX) to detour around. Meanwhile, UP and CN interchange far from downtown Chicago at Joliet. The only “leverage” CPKC has in Mexico (to the places they go in Mexico, which isn’t everywhere). The rest of their route is highly inferior.
MARK, If I understand your post, I do believe there’s an error. CNR goes under the St, Clair River (Port Huron to Sarnia), CPKC goes under the Detroit River (Detroit to Windsor). But of course your point stands. CPKC starts off behind the eight-ball and I have been saying so (on these pages) since the merger.
Take that Keith Creel… I am sure CN is puffing out its chest all over Canada today…
Vincent, I think Keith Creel has a lot to worry about. I have never thought that CPKC could compete against other railroads if the other railroads would get together to gang up against Calgary.
CPKC reminds me of Stellantis, the world’s #4 automaker by vehicles sold and toward the bottom of the list of many buyers.
The Stellantis merger cobbled together a bunch of disparate, perhaps incompatible, brands, some of them of questionable reputation and some of them not for sale in North America, a crucial market. Stellantis has only one or two brands, certainly Ram and maybe Jeep, that are really competitive in USA and Canada. How many Americans want a Fiat, a Citroen, an Opel or a Vauxhall? Or for that matter, even a Chrysler or a Dodge.
CPKC cobbled together routes in Canada and USA the long way around. Sure, ex-CPRy is strong in western Canada, places like Calgary. But to get a container from eastern Canada to Mexico … well, hope you’re not in a hurry. Mr. Creel has three problems: (1) Detroit to KC the long way via Bensenville, Illinois. (2) The former KCS in hill country, which wasn’t improved by a millimeter in this merger. (3) The merry-go-round in Southern Texas.
Charles, they are finally hustling to get sidings and CTC done up and down the Mississippi; the biggest problem of the three is how to get to KC from Detroit as they don’t own any of the rails they operate on from Windsor/Buffalo west & they would have to negotiate additional trackage rights for a faster route to KC via, say, the Wabash. It always puzzled me how they planned to market the railroad to customers as a true Transcontinental when they still have to figure out how to control their own destiny on that chunk.