We followed hundreds of thousands of containers across two 2,000-mile rail corridors — Vancouver→Toronto and LA→Chicago. The performance gap between railroads shows up in days, not hours, and appears in no published schedule. See what the data reveals.
Through March 25, RailState data showed increased train volume and larger trains across CN’s network to address the influx of containers. CPKC, on the other hand, has made fewer changes in train volumes or train size.
Overall freight volume westbound to the Port of Vancouver decreased 5.0% in November due to work stoppages at the western ports.
Overall freight volume westbound to the Port of Vancouver increased 4.6% in October compared to September, and was unchanged from October 2023.
Combined container volume through the Port of Vancouver fell to 68,613 in October. This total was down 5.2% from September and 6.2% higher than October 2023.
All Canada ports saw an increase in rail volume in September. Overall freight volume westbound to the Port of Vancouver increased 17.7% from August.
Combined container volume through the Port of Vancouver increased to 72,366 in September, up 10.3% from August and 37.0% higher than September 2023.
Overall freight volume westbound to the Port of Vancouver was nearly unchanged from July, despite the work stoppage across both railways.
With a work stoppage causing a shutdown of more than a day on CN and 4 days on CPKC, combined container volume through the Port of Vancouver was 65,632. This total is down 2.8% from July yet 7.8% higher than August 2023.
With a flurry of activity between the government, railways, and union groups over recent days, it has been hard to know what’s happening on the ground without an independent source of data.
On Sunday, August 25, total train movements across both railways were less than half (48.5%) of the average daily volume before the work stoppage on August 22.
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