As report by CIFFA in its Daily Bulletin:

 

In a service update last week to customers, CN advised of recent changes at the Port of Vancouver designed to improve overall service reliability and reduce transit times.

 

Centerm and Vanterm

 

Rail operations

Effective January 2nd, CN now services the waterfront directly and performs all Centerm and Vanterm terminal switching operations for CN customers. Waterfront traffic is now routed through CN’s Thornton Yard instead of the previous routing via CP’s Coquitlam Yard. From the time of the service change, the average rail transit time has been reduced by approximately 24 hours compared with the previous switching/transit plan.

– Centerm: CN is currently spotting and pulling between 6,000 and 8,000′ per day.

– Vanterm: CN is currently spotting and pulling between 11,000 and 12,000′ per day.

– CN reports that it is seeing an improvement in the timely repair of bad order rail equipment no longer going to Coquitlam. Dwell times are significantly reduced.

 

Trucking to support reduced dwell

– To assist with port dwell, CN is currently trucking Western Canada-destined traffic (for Calgary and Edmonton) each day to its Vancouver Intermodal Terminal (VIT) from both terminals.

– Centerm: Commencing last week, to reduce ground counts, DP World is now trucking between 150 and 180 units per day to CN Vancouver Intermodal Terminal.

– Vanterm: GCT is trucking up to 100 units per day to CN’s Vancouver Intermodal Terminal for furtherance to inland destinations

– CN has increased people and equipment around the clock to handle increased truck gate and terminal volumes at VIT.

 

NEW: Use of Additional Rail Capacity at Fraser Surrey Docks (FSD)

 

– CN and FSD have been working together on an operating service plan to add surge capacity to support overall port fluidity with more off-dock trucking.

– CN will commence this week delivering loaded railcars for furtherance via truck to Vanterm, Centerm and Deltaport

– This is a temporary service offering to support the timely evacuation and delivery of pre- and post-Chinese New Year peak volumes.

 

Deltaport

 

– Daily rail operations continue as planned. To supplement overall demand, CN and GCT continue to work closely on a trucking program, with up to 200 trucks per day moving through CN’s Vancouver Intermodal Terminal.