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Doug,

I don't think CP is ever going to capture more than a tiny fraction of truck
trailer traffic passing through your community on Hwy 401. Here are some
reasons why it'll never happen.

1. The Belleville sub is single track and cannot accomodate enough additional
traffic to make any significant impact.
2. The Smith's Falls crew change is not conducive to truck competitive timings.
3. CN competition
4. Independent truckers
5. A lot of the truck traffic you see on the 401 is destined for intermediate
points, and cannot economically be serviced by rail.
6. A lot of truck traffic is over the road from Chicago. Unless it is already
on a flatcar leaving Chicago, it's not likely to be on the rails between
Toronto and Montreal.
7. A significant number of trucks on the 401 are actually drayage, to or from
the intermodal yards of both CN and CP.

CP's Iron Highway service seems primarily aimed at the fleet operator and is
sold on a reserved guaranteed slot basis. The trucking company pays whether or
not the service is used. Therefore the I.H. can theoretically be profitable
even with many empty spots on the train. As they have just announced a
significant expansion (longer trains rather than more trains), its performance
must be deemed satisfactory.

...John Reay, mailto:reay@...