Vol. 12 Number 4 March 17, 1982

Vancouver - CP Rail is shipping aluminum slabs and ingots from a Washington state smelter to Pennsylvania and Illinois as part of a new service.

Since the service began late last year, 9,072 tonnes of the metal has been shipped to eastern processing plants through Canada, said Nelson Hughes, sales representative with marketing and sales here. The railway expects to ship an equal number of tonnes this way before the year is out.

"CP Rail's competitive pricing and the fact that less interchanges, which slow shipments, are involved when one railway handles the goods most of the way, give us the advantage over the U.S. railroads," said Mr. Hughes.

The intermodal moves call for the 9,075 kilogram slabs and smaller ingots to be loaded on trucks for a 32 kilometre journey from Intalco Aluminum Corporation's Ferndale, Washington, smelter to Sumas, B.C. The slabs are then transferred, braced, and strapped on CP Rail bulkhead flatcars for their trip eastward to either Emerson, Manitoba, or Welland, Ontario, two of the railways gateways to the United States.

At Emerson, the Soo Line Railroad, a subsidiary of Canadian Pacific, moves the cars to the Alumex Corporation's plant at Morris, Illinois. Shipments arriving at Welland are handled by Conrail which transports the cargo to How Met Aluminum Company's Lancaster, Pennsylvania, facilities. At both plants the bulk aluminum is rolled into sheets for sale in the eastern United States.

Montreal - The biggest challenge facing Canada's railways is the need to be properly compensated for the handling of grain in Western Canada, CP Rail's executive vice-president said here recently.

R.S. Allison told the Canadian Railway Club that major expansions of both CP Rail and CN Rail are needed if the forecast export tonnage to the west coast is to be handled efficiently in the future.

"In the absence of proper compensation for handling export grain, the railways can't justify or afford the necessary investments to improve capacity," Mr. Allison said. "It means that there's a lot of major expansion work and equipment purchases waiting in the wings."

IMPACT

Noting that declining revenues have carried over from the end of last year into 1982, Mr. Allison said, "This year is going to be a hang-tough year, in everything from motive power and cars to furniture and paper clips." Therefore, this issue has an impact far beyond grain and the railways, he said. "Clearly this is not the time for the supply industry to be silent. Instead, you should be making your position on Canadian transportation known."

Although there are real signs of movement on the part of the federal government, he said, railways can't invest on the basis of hopeful signs.

It doesn't matter how, when, or even if, the grain issue is resolved, he said. The railway's mandate is to provide transportation at the least possible cost.

"That, incidentally, is the name of your game too," he told his audience.

"We need your help, your thinking, and your ideas. The bottom line is this, what we buy from you must enable us to be more productive. We have to be innovative to keep our customers. The same should be true of the supply industry.

"In some areas you know what we are looking for, such as improved fuel efficient motive power. In other areas, our needs might be less obvious. That's where you come in, with some of your ideas."

Canada is fortunate to have a responsive and highly competent railway supply industry, he said, "an industry whose health is vital to us. We need you, not just your hardware, but your ideas too."