Canadian Railroads > Compare Port of Saint John vs Port of Halifax

How does the Port of Saint John compare with the Port of Halifax?  What are the differences in volumes that can be processed through each port?  How much business does CN have through Saint John compared with Halifax?  What are the main types of freight that are moving through each port?  With CP moving their first container to the Port of Saint John (see link below), how much of an impact will they have on volumes through the Port of Saint John?   Has CP ever made an effort to obtain trackage rights to the Port of Halifax to compete with CN when they owned the Canadian Atlantic Railway?

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I didn't see anything in the link that said CP had actually shipped a container.  

I think it's fair to say that both ports are operating below capacity.  Saint John has a container pier, but snce Tropical left (for Halifax) a while ago, there hasn't been much activity.  The big volumes in Saint John are oil (offshore pier connected to Irving's refinery) and potash.  Although there is a lot of talk about CP hauling potash, the terminal is on the east side of Saint John, and CN still controls the last mile or two connecting it to Island Yard (which is now operated by NB Southern).  The west side of Saint John is only connected to NBSR, so that is a friendly connection to CP.

Halifax is almost the opposite, with containers being the bulk of the business.  The Ceres container pier seems to be fairly busy, with ships sometimes having to anchor in Bedford Basin to wait for a berth.  Halterm, or PSA as it's now known, is not that busy, with all 3 berths empty many days.  Somebody must believe in it though, because they're expanding it anyway.  PSA has the advantage of not having an air draft limit due to the harbour bridges like Ceres does.  There is some oil coming in to the Imperial Oil and Irving tank farms, but there is no longer a refinery here.  Very little of that product moved by rail in the past anyway.  There is a large grain elevator, but it's mostly used for wood pellet storage these days.  I don't think there has been a unit grain train into Halifax since the '70s.  A small amount of bulk cargo like nickel ore, pulp and rails are loaded downtown, but it probably only totals 10 cars a day on average.  There is a fairly busy RO-RO operation taking cargo to St. John's Nfld., but it's primarily road based, not rail.

The Port of Halifax would love to have CP get running rights into Halifax, but CN has understandably been cool to that idea.  CP did have passenger and freight rights between Windsor Jct. and HOT (about 16 miles) back when they still owned the DAR, but those rights were not conveyed to the Windsor & Hantsport when they took over in 1994.

GTD

cn6218 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I didn't see anything in the link that said CP had
> actually shipped a container.  
>
> I think it's fair to say that both ports are
> operating below capacity.  Saint John has a
> container pier, but snce Tropical left (for
> Halifax) a while ago, there hasn't been much
> activity.  The big volumes in Saint John are oil
> (offshore pier connected to Irving's refinery) and
> potash.  Although there is a lot of talk about CP
> hauling potash, the terminal is on the east side
> of Saint John, and CN still controls the last mile
> or two connecting it to Island Yard (which is now
> operated by NB Southern).  The west side of Saint
> John is only connected to NBSR, so that is a
> friendly connection to CP.
...
> GTD

Does CMA CGM have much container activiity at Saint John with ther weekly service to/from Kingston, Jamaica?
https://www.cma-cgm.com/products-services/line-services/flyer/CAGML