(July 29, 2024) – RailState, the rail industry’s only provider of real-time rail network visibility is monitoring the impact on Canada’s freight rail network of the Jasper National Park wildfire and subsequent recovery.
After the significant disruptions experienced last week, service has started to return to levels seen prior to the shutdown of CN’s main line through Jasper.
For the first two weeks of July, an average of 19 trains per day moved eastbound and 17.5 moved westbound through this subdivision. On Sunday, July 28, RailState sensors captured 18 eastbound trains and 15 westbound trains through this area.
Impact on Exports – Port of Vancouver
With the main line closed, westbound train movements into the Port of Vancouver fell sharply. In the weeks leading up to last week’s shutdown, CN train volume into the Port of Vancouver averaged 94.5 trains per week. Only 51 trains traveled westbound into the Port between July 22-28, a 46% decrease from the recent average.
Travel times into the Port of Vancouver were not impacted by the shutdown, and actually decreased slightly last week compared to the recent average. It took an average of 13.3 hours to travel from Heffley, BC to Chilliwack, BC, which was 5 hours faster than the recent average of 18 hours seen since the beginning of June.
Eastbound out of the Port of Vancouver region was a different story. With trains unable to move further east through the Jasper area, trains were held. This caused backups and slower movement eastbound through the Directional Running Zone. The average travel time for CN trains moving from Mission City, BC to Heffley, BC was 34 hours, more than twice as long as the average travel time of 16.6 hours over the previous 7 weeks.
Port of Prince Rupert
Train movements through the Port of Prince Rupert followed a similar trend as the Port of Vancouver. Train volume into the Port fell to 24 trains between July 22-28, a 42% decrease from recent trends.
Westbound travel times were unaffected. RailState’s sensor is just east of Prince George at Wolverine, BC. Travel times from Wolverine to the Port averaged 25 hours over the past 8 weeks and remained within a range of 22.6 hours to 27.6 hours each week.
Eastbound travel times increased dramatically last week as trains were held in the Prince George area. The average travel time to move from Prince Rupert to Prince George increased to 72.4 hours last week.
Trains Rerouted onto CPKC
CN reported some rerouting of westbound trains onto CPKC. Trains moved south from Edmonton on the Camrose subdivision and then onto CPKC westbound out of Calgary on the Laggan subdivision and through to Kamloops.
RailState found two CN trains using this detour, both intermodal trains. One passed west of Calgary on 7/25 and the other on 7/27. No other trains appear to have been moved on this detour route.
Continuous Updates
RailState will provide additional updates during the recovery from this disruption as well as month-end reports on intermodal movements, activity through Canadian ports, and cross border rail volume.
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