North America - The return to warmer weather is helping the railways clear some of the backlog after the slowdown in grain movement during the recent cold snap.
 
Elizabeth Hucker, CPKC's assistant vice president of sales and marketing for bulk says that extreme cold dipped as far as Louisiana, and covered much of CPKC's network.
 
She says operations slowed due to the cold, but thanks to their experienced crews they were able to keep things moving.
 
"In week 25, CPKC moved 337,000 metric tons of grain and grain products, predominantly to Vancouver, given that Thunder Bay is closed for the season. But also to eastern Canada and a number of other US destinations."
 
Hucker says they worked very closely with their customers as operations slowed due to the cold to understand their priorities and what they needed to line up vessel requirements and otherwise.
 
She notes they are starting to see a recovery in week 26 and expect to be back to normal operations in week 27.
 
Glenda-Lee Vossler.