Intermodal to Saint John

J.D. Lang wrote: ↑Mon Aug 17, 2020 12:17 pm I'm following this thread and the two threads in the Pan Am forum with great amazement on the transformation of railroading in a great part of northern New England. Who ever thought that scenarios would start to play out like this. I can remember just after Lac Megantic that many said that the Moosehead sub was finished. I thought along those lines myself. With fortress taking over the MMA and bringing a decaying line back to life (and turning it over for a decent ROI) It's great to see that some Class I's are actually trying to grow their business after reading so many dismal stories of slash and burn in the name of PSR and the OR. Who could have ever predicted this. I guess that's why following this industry is so interesting.

Its revitalized some routes and wiped out others... but thats railroading I guess.

GEO train on the Searsport Branch. Maybe the beginning for a possible Potash terminal.

Any word on if the St. John container experiment has been a success and will any of the diverted ships that went to St. John during the strike in Montreal be keeping that as a regular port of call going forward?

The plan was for this to happen in the fall anyway. This strike situation just sped things up. DP has big plans for Saint John.

fromway wrote: ↑Wed Aug 19, 2020 7:15 pm GEO train on the Searsport Branch. Maybe the beginning for a possible Potash terminal.

Pretty much official now that CP plans to use Searsport for Potash and Grain exports, plus anticipated growth in handling refined oil products.

I'm assuming they'll not only have to build a loop track but also some sort of silo / warehouse storage facility akin to the one in Saint John.

If CP really invests in SRP, it could easily surpass Portland as Maine's busiest port.

Wait until the NIMBYs in Searsport hear all of this. I hope they are receptive, but you know there will be a fight.

Word is that Montreal is back to work. Don't know if strike is settled, but they are back to work. What will this do to the containers to/from SJ?

SJ is now a permanent part of Hapag Lloyd's Canada service. I believe Maersk will follow suit.

This was in the works long before the industrial action. it's worth noting that a lot of the shipping lines have been generally dissatisfied with Montreal for a while now. Montreal is not a good seaport.

Saint John is not yet part of Hapag's "permanent" service, that is the goal and it has yet to be realized.

An article with good insight published as of today:

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/railw ... nada-ports

Excerpt from today's Wall Street Journal:

A surprisingly robust peak season is taking shape at U.S. seaports. Container imports are flowing back into the U.S. in bigger volumes, the WSJ Logistics Report’s Costas Paris writes, as U.S. retailers rush to restock while consumer spending remains strong and shipping lines push capacity back into commercial trade lanes. The growth is accelerating at both the Atlantic and Pacific gateways but appears stronger recently on the West Coast, where retailers have faster access to domestic distribution channels primed for e-commerce.

and

The rebound in demand has pushed up freight rates. The spot price to send a standard container from Shanghai to California this week reached $3,758, a record price that has more than doubled from the start of this year, according to the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index.

The rate from China to the U.S. East Coast hit $4,538, the highest level since March 2015 and up 77% from the beginning of 2020.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/container- ... 1599240926

Largest container ship to make port in any east coast or west coast Canadian port ever arrived at Halifax on 9/10/20. CMA CGM Brazil, capable of handling 15,000 containers, left Malaysia on 8/14/20, ported at Sri Lanka on 8/21/20), and transited the Suez Canal on 8/29/20. After stopping at Halifax, CMA CGM Brazil continued to New York arriving on 9/12/20 and now is en route to Norfolk expected to arrive 9/15/20.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-sco ... V_-JzCFc8

The attached 9/11/2020 status update released by Hapag to the public indicates that the DP container facility was somewhat overwhelmed by the diverted container ships. The Hapag update also hints at a shortage of railcar equipment to move containers. If true, that would be surprising given the publicity that CP has given to the service.

Unrelated to Hapag, where is the auto compound for vehicle import/export at the Saint John port? Studying the available overhead maps of the Saint John facilities (which may be somewhat out of date), I do not see any current facilities suitable for loading/unloading tri-levels.

https://www.hapag-lloyd.com/en/news-ins ... ate-2.html

The auto compound is not at the port. It is located in the NB Southern Ponderosa Yard.

Ah, I see it now on the east end of the yard.

Interestingly, CP's marketing materials for their automotive capability at Saint John claim the "ability to load rail on dock" and to handle Ro/Ro vessels, so perhaps DP, Irving and CP plan to upgrade the infrastructure to handle auto racks at the dock serving Ro/Ro vehicle carriers since the existing facility at Ponderosa Yard is some distance away from the water. I note that the AIM Recycling facility is taking up prime, dockside, rail served real estate on the south end of the dock. Perhaps this operation gets moved and replaced by a higher-value auto import/export operation.

https://www.cpr.ca/en/choose-rail/atlantic-gateway

"Flexibility with design and spacing for automotive, with the ability to configure the terminal to suit the needs of customers including creating a Vehicle Process Centre (VPC).
Capable of handling roll-on/roll-off vessels, with the ability to load rail on-dock and convert existing general cargo space for automotive fleets.
Automotive compounds in Port Saint John allow vehicles to be easily distributed across the Maritimes."

I’ve been tracking the ships docking at Saint John for several weeks. All the container ships recently appear to be in the Caribbean rotation. Have not seen any container ships dock that I could identify as on a transatlantic route