Alliston Ontario - Ongoing CP Rail shipping problems that have forced Honda of Canada Manufacturing in Alliston to stockpile vehicles over the past two months appear to be easing up.
 
Plant spokesperson Mike Page said the company hopes to begin shipping more vehicles over the next two weeks as the railway operator recovers from delays caused by the harsh winter.
 
"It's just simply the situation with the rail lines that is still carrying over from the severe weather we had over the winter," he said.
 
"It had to do with the brake lines on the rail cars, where they aren't able to run as long of a train as they normally do, and that's kind of displaced the empty rail cars across North America, so it's affecting a lot more than just us. It's affected a number of production sites across the U.S. as well."
 
The railway operator is also struggling to transport one of the largest grain crops from the prairie provinces in the past 100 years.
 
To help reduce the backlog, the federal government has put regulations in place to force the operator to move minimum amounts of grain each day.
 
Honda relies on the rail line that runs through Alliston for the majority of its vehicle shipments.
 
Since early February, Page said the company has been storing vehicles on-site and at the Essa and District Agricultural Society fairgrounds in Ivy.
 
At the height of it, he said they had about 2,700 vehicles being stored.
 
"We do have a storage locker that is normally utilized anyway, and we've also been taking advantage of some of the associate parking from the space we do have around the plant as well," he said.
 
Over the past two months he said the company has been shipping more vehicles by truck as a temporary solution.
 
Page said the shipping issue has not affected production.
 
The company currently employs about 4,200 associates between its three manufacturing plants in Alliston, which produce the Honda Civic Sedan and Coupe, including the SI versions, along with Honda CR-V.
 
The plants produce about 390,000 vehicles and 195,000 engines every year.
 
Brad Pritchard.