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More Than Meets the Eye
Train 107 pulls into Thunder Bay on a cold sunny day - 9 Jan 2009 Kyle
Stefanovic
PAUL THURSTON
C&PA Toronto
Thunder Bay - Like spokes in a wheel, the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) binds Thunder Bay to the rim of North America.
Working in co-operation with Great Lakes carriers and highway truckers, the hometown men and women of CPR provide a vital link to a
transcontinental freight system that connects the city with markets around the world.
Located at CPR's Northern Ontario Service Area offices on Syndicate Ave. South, and the railway's equipment facility on McNaughton St.,
railway managers here are responsible for train operations, track upkeep, and equipment maintenance from Ignace in the west to Cartier in
the east, a distance of 1,070 kilometres (665 miles).
The local operating area known as the Thunder Bay Terminal stretches approximately from Neebing Ave. near the airport to Current River
Park. It is made up of 125 miles of track, much of it interconnected by 465 switches.
"There's much more to us than meets the eye," says Ray Strelesky, the service area manager who oversees the daily activities of
450 locomotive engineers, conductors, train crew members, and other personnel who operate a daily average of 20 freight trains into, out
of, or through the city.
"We have a large contingent of Northern Ontario employees who don't actually live and work here but are very much part of the Thunder
Bay team." Of the 450 operations employees who are part of CPR's Northern Ontario Service Area, 185 report to work at various
locations in the city, while 265 others are based throughout the territory.
Railroading means sharing the load with co-workers located hundreds, if not thousands, of kilometres away. While not visible every day,
the boss knows they're busy.
"You get so used to it," Ray says, "that you think of them as being in the next room." Managers and employees stay in
touch through dedicated radio systems, satellite phones, the commercial cellular network, and ever-present e-mail fed through fixed
workstations or laptop computers.
When that's not enough, Ray and his associates meet personally with employees across the territory. In addition to Ignace and Cartier,
Schreiber and Chapleau are also home to large numbers of employees.
Depending on their collective efforts is a who's who of Northern Ontario industry, names like Weyerhauser, Domtar, Kimberley Clark, James
Richardson International, United Grain Growers, Bowater, and Petro Canada, just to name a few.
The fastest-growing segment of CPR business is intermodal, so-called because freight can easily make the transition between different
transportation modes. It's based on containers that travel by train, truck, and ship, or highway trailers that ride specially designed
cars over CPR's steel road rather than an often-congested paved one.
Piggyback Marks 50
CPR Intermodal service, once known as Piggyback, is 50 years old this year. It continues to win friends among shippers for its simplicity,
security, and low cost. CPR has created a premium train service to improve performance in this market, which represents almost a quarter
of the company's operating revenue.
In Thunder Bay the intermodal facility is located on 110th Ave. Operated for CPR by Consolidated Fastfrate, it has two tracks for loading
and unloading truck trailers as well as containers used in both domestic and international marine freight service. A mobile top-lifter
capable of moving any trailer or container up to 53 feet in length on and off trains is located at the facility, which can handle up to
10,000 units per year.
The most common image of railroading in Thunder Bay may be associated with a Prairie grain field. CPR handles about two-thirds of the
Prairie grain bound for the export terminals at Thunder Bay, representing about 48,500 carloads (4,607,500 tonnes) of freight per year.
Other large Thunder Bay originating or destined freight is coal (1,060,000 tonnes), potash (365,800 tonnes), woodpulp (370,000 tonnes),
and newsprint (250,000 tonnes).
CPR's 22,370-kilometre (13,900-mile) system extends from Vancouver to Montreal, and to the U.S. cities of Chicago, Newark, New York,
Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.
The heart of the railway's business is based primarily on funneling traffic from feeder and connecting lines onto a 7,560 kilometre
(4,700-mile) high-density, high-quality, core network, which offers the shortest rail distance for bulk products from key producing areas
in western Canada to the Port of Vancouver and to Toronto via Thunder Bay.
Alliances with other railways extend the CPR's market reach beyond its own system and into the major business centers of Mexico.
Helping to keep it all on the go are the employees who look after the tracks and the trains.
"In Northern Ontario we run about 150,000 miles of track patrols every year," says Ron Pylypchuk, service area manager for the
engineering department. "With the help of high-technology inspections provided by CPR's track evaluation cars, and in-track sensing
and warning devices, we keep the track safe and secure for trains weighing up to 11,500 tonnes."
There will soon be even more track to inspect, as CPR embarks this year on a program to lengthen sidings (passing tracks) at several
locations across Ron's territory.
"The objective is to improve our ability to run trains in either direction with fewer delays where trains moving in opposite
directions meet, or where one train must pass another going the same way," he says.
It takes about 200,000 person-hours of work every year to keep railway equipment in top running condition in Northern Ontario, a job that
is supervised by Richard Parent, the service area manager for the mechanical department.
"At our McNaughton St. facility we repair more than 10,000 freight cars per year, says Richard. "Our employees perform
maintenance and repairs to a variety of cars, minimizing the downtime, and ensuring cars are on their way to our customers with as little
delay as possible."
In today's CPR, old-fashioned elbow grease is mixed with a strong dose of computer-assisted efficiency. Some examples of process
improvements that have been implemented or will be coming to CPR in Thunder Bay are:
DELTA, which matches demand for equipment with supply.
VISTA, which produces shipment trip plans and estimated times of arrival.
TYES, which effectively manages trip plans through railway yards.
OASIS, which enhances intermodal terminal management and service.
The CPR has also implemented a system-wide integrated operating plan that has improved locomotive productivity by about 15 percent in the
past two years. Fuel consumption rates have improved 9 percent as a result, and car utilization has also
improved.
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