Canadian Railroads > CP to expand Vancouver Intermodal Facility

in cooperation with Maersk.  The key takeaway is it will apparently reduce the use of drayage trucks in the port area, replacing them with rail.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cp-and-maersk-reach-agreement-that-will-benefit-north-american-customers-and-the-environment-301130651.html

Actually, the key takeaway is that here we have an ocean carrier and a railroad partnering to jointly promote trans-loading supply chains instead of inland movement of marine containers.

About four years ago, I presented to Maersk management that trans-loading is the supply chain most large importers want. There is great value in being able to re-allocate imports across different regions rather than having to commit what goes where a month or more earlier. And there is great value in being able to allocate the contents of each container across all regions rather than having to commit a whole containerload to just one region. Maersk was going in a different direction and had spun off its North American logistics subsidiary. I am glad to learn that they reversed course.

On the railroad side, this is a great intiative for CP to take market share away from CN.

Best regards,

Rob L.

Press release says CP will "shuttle" containers to the transloading facility.  So is this a short-distance rail move within the Vancouver area from the port to the facility?  That would be unique.

RRTom Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Press release says CP will "shuttle" containers to
> the transloading facility.  So is this a
> short-distance rail move within the Vancouver area
> from the port to the facility?  That would be
> unique.

That was my reading of the story, but the additional info is very helpful in Understanding context.

Posted from Android

RRTom Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Press release says CP will "shuttle" containers to
> the transloading facility.  So is this a
> short-distance rail move within the Vancouver area
> from the port to the facility?  That would be
> unique.

The key is that CP will get the long-haul outbound domestic container shipments from the facility. CP does not have to load the marine boxes at the marine terminals, so the short-haul to the transload facility is not so costly and therefore a small price to pay to get the lucrative outbound traffic and keep it out of the hands of CN.

Best regards,

Rob L.

There is an existing transfer job from Deltaport to VIF, I wonder if the shuttle in the release refers to taking marine boxes from Deltaport to be restuffed into domestic cans at this newly upgraded facility?

Posted from Android

Darren Boes
Lethbridge, AB
Southern Alberta Railfan

sarailfan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There is an existing transfer job from Deltaport
> to VIF, I wonder if the shuttle in the release
> refers to taking marine boxes from Deltaport to be
> restuffed into domestic cans at this newly
> upgraded facility?
>

I expect this new facility will be all dry freight and the imports will be all or almost all in dry boxes.

Best regards,

Rob L.

sarailfan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There is an existing transfer job from Deltaport
> to VIF, I wonder if the shuttle in the release
> refers to taking marine boxes from Deltaport to be
> restuffed into domestic cans at this newly
> upgraded facility?

There are also marine container transfers to Coquitlam Yard and VIF from the two container terminals in the downtown area of the port.