In March, southbound traffic was 2,270 cars greater than northbound. February traffic was greater for southbound flows, by 4,240 cars.
Most of the differences in April and March came on CN, which saw 4,175 more cars coming northbound, accounting for 75% of the total difference in northbound v. southbound traffic. In March, CN carried 2,376 more cars southbound.
In February, CP carried 3,762 more cars southbound, compared to CN only carrying 478 more southbound cars than northbound cars.
The busiest border crossings on CN-originated traffic were Fort Frances, ON/International Falls, MN (40.5% of total CN southbound traffic), Port Huron, MI (37.1%), and Blaine, WA/Vancouver-Seattle (via BNSF) (19.9%). At Fort Frances, CN carried 8.22% more cars northbound over the past three months. At Port Huron, there were 7.62% more southbound cars over the same period.
For CP, the busiest crossings were Windsor (29.3% of total CP southbound traffic), North Portal, SK (24.3%), Kingsgate, BC (20.3%), and Emerson, MB (19.4%). Only Emerson saw notable differences in northbound v. southbound traffic, with 8.1% higher southbound traffic over the past three months.
What is Moving – Car Mix
The two rail lines carry substantially different mixes of cars although both carry energy products and agricultural commodities as their biggest categories.
CP leans more heavily on energy and agricultural products southbound to the US than CN. A quarter of cars over the past three months were tank cars and 42.3% of cars were covered hoppers (grain and potash).