Where Did Trains Go During the Strike?
The Port of Vancouver received 7 trains per day on average during June. Many of these trains originate in eastern Canada for a trip lasting an average of 4 to 6 days. During normal operations, there would be around 35 westbound trains underway. Instead of completing the journey to Vancouver, most of these trains were held at various points across the route and are restarting. For those that arrived into the Port of Vancouver area during the strike, the trains had to wait for unloading until the end of the work stoppage.
There were also about 20 trains that entered the port in the few days before the start of the strike and remained in the port region, suggesting that additional capacity will be needed to resolve backlogs. The railroads have ramped up volume to clear the ports and now face another slowdown with the strike resuming.
Commodity Flows
Prince Rupert
Not all terminals on the west coast were shut down by the work stoppage. Coal continued to move through Prince Rupert at a terminal operating under a different labor agreement than the majority of the port terminals on the west coast and did not experience a work stoppage. Coal volume for export through Prince Rupert increased 52.4% during the strike as shippers sent trains to Prince Rupert instead of the Port of Vancouver.
Volume has started a modest decline with the end of the strike. We expect this trend to continue as shippers start sending shipments to the Port of Vancouver again.
Similarly, grain continued to be exported. Grain is required to keep moving under Canadian law allowing grain exports to continue. Grain increased significantly, rising 77.8% in terms of average daily volume of grain unit trains. Grain has also started to show declines since the end of the strike.
Note – In an earlier report, we compared total volume for the strike period (July 1-11, at the time) and the same number of days preceding the strike (June 20-30). The comparisons below look at average daily volume, not total volume. The average daily volume better shows the changes in traffic as the ports and railroads work to clear any backlogs and get back to normal operations.