CALGARY, May 19 /CNW/ - Canadian Pacific Railway continued to make
gains in transPacific container traffic over its Vancouver-Chicago
corridor,
announcing today a contract with Norasia Line.
Swiss-based Norasia this month will launch its first foray into
transPacific service, with the Port of Vancouver as the North American
gateway and CPR as the land carrier moving containers on double-stack
trains
directly into Chicago over its own track. CPR is the only rail carrier
that can
move freight from Vancouver to Chicago over its own rail line.
``The U.S. Midwest market is huge and this is another exciting
victory for us,'' said Rob Ritchie, President and Chief Executive
Officer of
CPR. ``Service in the Vancouver-Chicago corridor is a key element of our
business strategy. The investments we made to expand volumes in this
corridor
are producing strong results. Together with the Port of Vancouver and
its
terminal operators, we have a partnership that is primed to generate
continued
growth.''
CPR has made large investments to expand track capacity and
increase train speed in its Vancouver-Chicago corridor, making its route
a
strong competitor in the US$1 billion-a-year Midwest U.S. market for
transPacific containers. The railway has purchased a fleet of 346
high-performance
alternating current locomotives employing the most advanced locomotive
technology. CPR also recently completed a multi-year modernization of
its Chicago-area yard, which includes a large intermodal terminal, for
faster freight throughput in the Chicago hub and first-rate connections
to the
major railways serving the U.S. At the same time, the Port of Vancouver
and
its container terminal operators have expanded the capacity of their
facilities.
Norasia is the second container shipping line in the past week that
CPR has secured for its Vancouver-Chicago corridor with the Port of
Vancouver as the gateway. `Vancouver and CPR are becoming the new choice
for major container lines shipping into the U.S. heartland,'' Mr.
Ritchie said.
``We are very pleased with the response of the marketplace.''
The ships in the new service will have a container capacity of
1,400 TEUs (20-foot equivalent containers). The first vessel will arrive
in
Vancouver on May 29. Norasia will call weekly at Deltaport, the Port of
Vancouver's ultramodern container terminal, which is served directly by
CPR. The
railway will have them in Chicago on the fourth day following departure
of a
dedicated intermodal train.
Deltaport, a $224-million container transfer facility that opened
in June 1997, has capacity to handle 600,000 TEUs a year. It can fill a
double-stack unit train in 11 hours -- faster than any other on-dock
terminal in
North America.
Norasia's new service departs Laem Chabang, Thailand and calls at
Port Kelang and Singapore, Malaysia; Jakarta, Indonesia; Hong Kong;
Keelung,
Taiwan; and Pusan, Korea, en route to Vancouver. Norasia already
provides transAtlantic and Mediterranean container service into
Montreal. With
the launch of its transPacific service, Norasia will serve the Canadian
and
U.S. Midwest markets through Canadian gateways on both coasts, with CPR
as
the rail carrier.
CPR's single-line routing takes Norasia's traffic from Deltaport to
Moose Jaw, Sask., then south through North Dakota, the Twin Cities and
Milwaukee and into Chicago. In Chicago, CPR connects with all the major
U.S. railways for containers moving to other U.S. destinations.
Calgary-based CPR, a wholly owned subsidiary of Canadian Pacific
Limited, provides rail transportation over a 24,600 km (15,300 miles)
network
reaching most of the principal centres of Canada, as well as the U.S.
Midwest
and Northeast. CPR has assets of $8.4 billion, annual revenues of
approximately $3.5 billion and 19,900 employees in Canada, the U.S. and
overseas. The CPR Website address is www.cpr.ca.
-0- 05/19/1999
