Montreal - CP Rail has secured a new agreement to transport up to 8,000 Mazda vehicles from Vancouver to the railway's St. Luc Car Compound here for distribution to car dealers in Quebec.

The new traffic represents an additional revenue of about $1.2 million for the railway.

"We have been trying to get Mazda to ship their cars and trucks to Montreal with CP Rail for about a year now," said Louis Chabot, marketing and sales representative for manufactured products.

DECISION

"The decision by Mazda to use CP Rail was greatly influenced by the car compound's reputation among truckers and car manufacturers for its high efficiency."

The 27-acre compound, located adjacent to the railway yard of the same name, has been in operation for over 10 years. It is the only car compound owned by CP Rail which is also operated by the railway.

AUTO CAPACITY

Some 35 employees, under Terminal Manager D.P. Lafrenibre, work at the facility, which has seven rail sidings and storage capacity for 2,500 automobiles.

"We can unload between 25 and 30 tri-levels, or bi-levels, each day and we can handle up to 15 trucks at a time for local distribution," said Mr. Lafreniere. "We have an annual throughput of 60-75,000 vehicles a year."

The new agreement represents about 25 percent of the imported car traffic for the Atlantic Region and almost 10 percent of all automobile traffic received here.

Mazda Canada officials Roger Webb and Gary Chapleau and representatives of CP Rail's Atlantic Region were on hand 18 Apr 1983 for the unloading of the first set of tri-levels containing spanking new Mazda cars and light-duty trucks.

IMPORTANT BACKHAUL

Mr. Chabot said that the additional Mazda traffic will complement what the Atlantic Region already receives from G.M., Chrysler, Nissan, Ford, and Subaru.

"It will provide important backhaul traffic for the railway's multi-level equipment handling domestic cars from Eastern to Western Canada," he added.

"Our job is to ensure quality service to both domestic and foreign manufacturers, and, given the cooperation we've had from our operations people up until now, I am confident we will continue to do so," he said.