24 May 2005
24-Hour
Terminal Access to Smooth Traffic Flow at Lachine
Truckers will have better
access to the Lachine Terminal, now that Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) is introducing a
24-hour operation schedule at the terminal in Montreal.
Starting Monday 6 Jun 2005, Canadian Pacific Railway's Lachine Terminal will be open
from midnight Sunday until midnight Friday. The move to increased operating hours will enable
trucking companies to better serve their clients by having the ability to expand their own delivery
schedules through increased access to their loads.
Alan Parry, the General Manager of Intermodal Operations at CPR, says the extended hours initiative
was created after joint consultations with representatives from the Quebec Trucking Association (which
represents a majority of the trucking industry in Quebec), I.E.Canada, Canadian International Freight
Forwarders Association and the shipping community. It will help address the surge of truck traffic
early in the week at Lachine terminal, resulting from heavy import volumes coming in through the
port of Vancouver.
Quebec Trucking Association President and CEO, Marc Cadieux comments, "Exchanges between our
organizations and the participation of our member carriers have enabled the implementation of
extended hours. We hope that not only the carriers but also their importer and exporter customers
will benefit from the new arrangement. This joint effort of our organizations is an example of CPR's
desire to improve business customer service in the Montreal area."
Canadian International Freight Forwarders Association (CIFFA) Vice President, Marc Bibeau adds,
"CIFFA congratulates CPR for their continual efforts on improving efficiencies and flexibility
to the import and export community and the International Freight Forwarders in the Quebec corridor.
It is now time for all parties in the industry to take advantage of the extended hours CPR Lachine
now offers. We must change the way we do business if we want to avoid potential gridlock and lengthy
delays at the rail yards. This is a positive start in expediting container movements. Taking
advantage of the after hours opening can only prevail in better overall service in the long run. This
will minimize costs, increase productivity and avoid costly storage charges."
All those involved in realizing this initiative agreed that this is an important step in addressing
the increasing import volumes. However, it is also recognized that more work is required to enable
the terminal to add weekend operating hours as a means of increasing the productivity of everyone
in the logistics chain.
CPR is committed to improving terminal fluidity at Lachine through a variety of other initiatives.
In addition to extending the hours of operation, CPR recently increased staff levels, added five new
Fantuzzi toplift machines and will begin a two-year track expansion plan this spring to
help prepare them for the anticipated volume growth.
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