The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday, Oct. 30, edition that
a strong economy has boosted
demand for consumer and industrial
goods that are increasingly
moving by rail. The Globe's Eric Atkins writes that railways that have tried to cope
with the resulting congestion by
boosting the size of their locomotive
fleets have found suppliers
sold out.
Much of the growth in freight
volume at Canadian
National Railway has
come from grain, oil and sand
used in hydraulic fracturing for
petroleum extraction, all heavy
commodities that need trains
pulled by two or more locomotives.
In the past two years CN has bought 141 locomotives. CN plans to add another
120 to its fleet of nearly 3,000 over
the next two years.
"We have options to get us
through well into 2017 [and] 2018," says CN
chief executive officer Claude Mongeau.
Canadian Pacific Railway is
taking a different approach. CEO
Hunter Harrison believes more
locomotives will worsen congestion,
not alleviate it. He has instead worked on improving efficiency at
the company. CP has no new locomotives
on order, but
has an unspecified number on
lease to other railways that will
soon be returned to CP's service.
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