30 September 2004 Improvements Allow CPR to Ship More Upper Midwest Grain to Pacific Northwest Canadian Pacific Railway will begin shipping 20 percent more grain in November from country elevators in North Dakota and western Minnesota to Pacific Northwest ports.   Starting 1 Nov 2004, CPR will be able to ship an additional 2 million bushels on top of the nearly 11 million bushels a month that it now ships from this region.   The added capacity is possible due in part to nearly $8 million in track improvements that CPR made this fall in North Dakota and British Columbia.   Track improvements   Cranbrook, B.C. - Realigned yard tracks to permit construction of two 7,200-foot capacity staging tracks. Work was completed this month. Kingsgate, B.C. - Constructed one long staging track with 10,000-foot capacity for border crossing. Work is wrapping up this month. Portal, N.D. - Extended two yard tracks to provide 8,500-foot capacity for handling trains. Work was completed this month. Enderlin, N.D. - Reconfigured yard tracks to permit more capacity for yard switching. Work will be complete in early October.   "Now we have two long sidings at the Portal, North Dakota, border to help speed all trains, including grain trains, through the corridor," said James Clements, CPR's director of grain.   "We can put more and longer trains across the border," he said.   Other improvements   Locomotive modifications performed over the summer made more units available to take trains over the border from British Columbia into Idaho where CPR's tracks meet the Union Pacific. Union Pacific takes CPR's grain trains on to the Pacific Northwest.   Other changes involved process improvements and training.   "We had a joint team this summer that made improvements in planning and communication on the CPR-UP corridor," Clements said.   Union Pacific also trained additional locomotive engineers and conductors and made them available on the U.S. side of the border, Clements said.