In order to meet customer demand and move thousands of pulp logs to mills in Wisconsin and Minnesota, CN Rail is moving two-hundred pulpwood-hauling cars to Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

Last month, U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Menominee, wrote a letter to the head of CN Rail in Montreal, Canada, after being informed by constituents about the problems rate increases and too few rail cars were having on Upper Peninsula U.P. timber interests.

A total of 400 rail cars were previously allocated by Canadian National for the entire U.P. with steep rate increases complicating the problem. An estimated 50,000 cords of wood were stockpiled in eastern U.P. woodlots waiting to be shipped to mills.

The railway was providing pulpwood cars, but only in very limited numbers, according to eastern U.P. loggers and EDC officials. Some timber producers found some success in ordering cars from Canadian National through the largest timber companies operating in the area. Others were contemplating shipments via barges on Lake Superior.

The problem posed a significant threat to U.P. timber economies, potentially forcing job layoffs and losses from timber stocks rotting.

Canadian National President and Chief Executive Officer E. Hunter Harrison told Stupak in a letter this week that Wisconsin Central, the former rail operator, maintained practices that were not economically sustainable for Canadian National to operate under.

Those practices resulted in adjustments to the Canadian National prices and service frequency.

Harrison said a recent cost analysis indicated the company would be able to support a 30 percent increase in available capacity for customers in the U.P. as early as December or January. That increase would equate to about 200 new cars being added to U.P. tracks, according to Canadian National officials.