Canadian Pacific
CALGARY — Port Saint John, New Brunswick, will see additional seasonal container service, Canadian Pacific and shipping firm Hapag-Lloyd have announced.
The additional call at the port via a “seasonal extra loader” follows service launched into the port in May 2021.
“We are thrilled to see Hapag-Lloyd add a second solution into Port Saint John, further unlocking the port’s potential for CP customers and the North American supply chain,” John Brooks, CP executive vice-president and chief marketing officer, said in a press release. “Port Saint John offers a congestion-free gateway to Canadian and U.S. markets.”
CP regained access to the port in June 2020 with the acquisition of the Central Maine & Quebec Railway, regaining lines it had divested earlier. The port is currently undergoing a modernization program that will increase container capacity to 800,000 Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units.
“We are excited to be able to offer another product to our customers both in the U.S. and Canada,” said Uffe Ostergaard, president of Hapag-Lloyd Americas. “This seasonal product will be particularly beneficial in connecting customers in inland locations in the U.S. Midwest and throughout Canada with key North European ports.”
CSX may also end up serving Saint John through a connection with NBSR at Mattawamkeag.
If so, it should be interesting to watch whether CP or CSX offers the fastest/most reliable service between Saint John and Detroit/Chicago.
As one who sees NB Southern action on almost a daily basis and within the last Year certainly, the manifests and tonnage is ever growing. Besides the growth with the International Containers from Port Saint John, an increasing Domestic Container business is occurring with the majority being CP Containers.
Rumour has it that NB Southern ( NBSR ) will be operating two trains per day in each direction West and East starting in June, from the current one in each direction. This will separate the Manifest traffic from the Intermodal providing much better traffic flow.
I believe this is great for the Port of St. John and CP. Will the NBS move the train from St. John to Brownsville Jct., of will CP go directly to the Port and operate over the NBS?
I want to hope that eventually CP will gain haulage rights over NBS, as eventually they will need a train to handle the manifest traffic to brownville, farnham, etc. and one for the intermodal to keep the business competitive. I was up last year and NBS was running a “fiber train” 3x a week with just the woodchips and pulpwood for Irving’s mills, but it seems like getting any consistent move for traffic outside the scope of Irving’s portfolio is like pulling teeth.
That being said, I’ve also heard the border agency only accepts one pair of trains a day, I’m not sure what goes into getting that changed, if it can be.
CP already has haulage rights.