The port and terminal operator DP World said the Fairview Phase 2B project would increase capacity to 1.8 million twenty-foot equivalent units, up from the current 1.35 million TEUs. The port completed Phase 2A of the expansion at the terminal in September 2017, which added 500,000 TEUs of capacity.
Growth at Prince Rupert has been driven primarily by CN’s service to markets in the U.S. Midwest, which account for two-thirds of the port’s container volume. The remainder heads to interior markets in Canada.
The port has been gaining market share over U.S. ports due to its closer sailing time to Asian ports as well as its low container dwell times.
“They’ve got a better mousetrap and despite the stumbles they had with CN service issues in the winter, and congestion issues at the port with the last expansion, folks are willing to bear with them,” says Larry Gross, an intermodal analyst with Gross Transportation Consulting.
“The execution of this agreement signifies DP World’s commitment to enabling Canadian trade with another significant investment that will bring a total of one million additional TEUs of container capacity to the Port of Prince Rupert in less than five years,” Port Chairman Bud Smith said in a statement.
Construction will begin next year and will gradually increase the terminal’s capacity to 1.6 million TEUs in 2020 as a container yard is expanded. The Phase 2B project will expand on-dock rail capacity with the addition of 6,680 feet of working track, for a total of 24,680 feet of on-dock rail by 2022.
“Together with our supply chain partners, this expansion, combined with CN’s investments in B.C. and across its rail network, positions us to drive this unique trade gateway success story forward,” Jean-Jacques Ruest, CN’s interim CEO, said in a statement.
A spike in international intermodal traffic from Prince Rupert last year was among the reasons CN wound up in a severe capacity crunch across western Canada and was caught short of crews, locomotives, and track capacity.
This year CN is adding four new passing sidings on its line between Prince Rupert and Jasper, Alberta, as well as extending three existing sidings. The railway also is adding capacity on its Edmonton, Alta., to Chicago corridor.
Overall this year CN is spending $400 million to add 60 miles of double-track, 11 new or extended sidings, and expansions at eight yards in western Canada. It also ordered 200 locomotives from General Electric, leased 130 locomotives, and is hiring train and engine crews.
Ruest has said that CN expects the expanded container port to hit maximum capacity this year, at least two years ahead of schedule. He has vowed that CN will add enough capacity to stay ahead of traffic growth.
The container port expansion is but one area of growth at the port. Prince Rupert’s coal exports are on the rise. And a pair of new terminals for propane exports will come online in 2019 and 2020.
Eventually VIA Rail will not be able to serve Prince Rupert anymore from Jasper. The reason why: with CN will increase their freight traffic on that corridor, passenger train traffic will be impossible even if more sidings are added on. CN will not pay to build a second track since most of that mountainous terrain is too narrow and greediness in our today`s culture is normal and will linger on to eternity whereas consideration in the 1950`s and 1960`s are now a thing of the past..
I agree Tom. This obsession with operating ratio to please Wall Street is discouraging customers. Who pays tbe bills? The job of railroads is to move freight for paying customers. It’s time they doing that.
Well, CN better get their butt in gear then. They have very poor record of handling that port which at one time had backed up container ships for 30 days because of CN’s poor service. A telling tale will be if VIA can ever run a train a train close to on schedule. The number of sidings they will construct or lengthen is flat not enough to handle the proposed increase over the distances they have. They need to shorten their damn trains and stop the 12,000 ft train non-sense because they can not handle them on time. In other words, stop managing the railroad to please Wall Street and manage it to take care of the traffic.