Deltaport congestion cleared, but more port investment is required
Canadian National Railway Co. and Terminal Systems Inc. (TSI) said Thursday the backlog of import containers at Deltaport terminal in the port of Vancouver has been cleared and that they will work closely to avoid future congestion.
In a separate development, the Vancouver Port Authority has urged the Canadian government and the industry to work together to implement infrastructure developments at Canada’s West Coast ports to capture Asia Pacific trade opportunities.
CN said severe winter weather in western Canada and an unexpected surge in container imports early in the New Year had caused congestion at Deltaport. To ease the backlog CN said it added more car capacity and implemented a temporary 25 percent reduction in vessel discharges at the terminal.
“We now have a four-week rolling forecast of expected import traffic to Deltaport that will allow all stakeholders to anticipate incoming container volumes,” said Paul Waite, CN’s vice president. “We think that by working together better, the railways, ports and steamship companies could effectively increase capacity of the intermodal system by 15 percent to 20 percent — and reduce costs.”
In a speech made to the Railway Association of Canada, Capt. Gordon Houston, president and chief executive officer of Vancouver Port Authority, asked what the impact of expanding trade with China two- or three-fold will be.
“Imagine what it would mean for our ports, our railways, our roads and distribution centers with today’s infrastructure and today's legislation. We’re already struggling to keep up with our 1 percent share of China’s export trade,” he said.
“We have so much work to do to develop the transportation infrastructure, the capacity, the efficiencies and the linkages necessary to play an even larger role in international trade,” Houston said. “So for those in government it’s changes to policy, legislation and regulation to allow private sector businesses to seize these opportunities.”