Intermodal to Saint John

No trains yesterday.

121 was into Greenville Jct. at 08:56 with KCS 4838/CP 7020, 16 GREX ballast cars, 55 wells/83 containers, 8111 (DPU), 29 wells/63 containers, 7 empty wells, 40 mixed freight.

[Edited at 06:00, 7/13]

120 was into Greenville Jct. at 18:10 last night with 8122/8952, 31 wells/62 containers, 11 empty wells, 64 mixed freight (12 loaded autoracks).

121 was into Greenville Jct. at 10:50 with 8952/8122/2307, 19 mixed freight, 51 wells/104 containers, 9750 (DPU), 39 wells/78 containers, 2 empty wells, 15 empty autoracks, 7 mixed freight.

[Edited at 21:03]

120 was into Greenville Jct. at 16:35 with 8152/KCSM 4555/CMQ 3817, 46 wells/88 containers, 1 empty well, 21 mixed freight.

121 was into Greenville Jct. at 09:47 with 8152, 15 wells/34 containers, 32 mixed freight, KCSM 4555 (DPU), 27 mixed freight.

121 was into Greenville Jct. at 09:54 with 9385, 53 wells/105 containers, UP 8180 (DPU), 16 wells/32 containers, 33 mixed freight.

I missed last night's 120, which was the same 1x1 setup with 158 cars.

NHV 669 wrote: ↑Sat Jul 15, 2023 8:54 am 121 was into Greenville Jct. at 09:54 with 9385, 53 wells/105 containers, UP 8180 (DPU), 16 wells/32 containers, 33 mixed freight.

I missed last night's 120, which was the same 1x1 setup with 158 cars.

I counted a total of 225 containers on the 120 from 7-14-2023. I don't have the breakdown pre/post DPU or other train details.

Is CPKC seeing less traffic on the Moosehead sub or is the reduced frequency of trains, a crew shortage thing, increased efficiency or some other thing? Doesn’t seem like car counts are down by too much from last summer when there was some days three trains a day.

It was up to 4 for a bit, until the extra ship calls tailed off. 120 didn't run yesterday; 121 didn't run this morning.

120 was into Greenville Jct. at 17:49 with 8×××/8910, 36 mixed freight, 45 wells/94 containers, 9750 (DPU), 94 wells/200 containers.

8152 died west of Jackman the other day, local power had to come rescue the train.

CPKC is running 5 trains a week-- basically trying to run 10' jobs as much as possible... international trade is down, forecast was 2000 containers per week but they are running at a third of that. Everything is cyclical, give it a bit of time.

121 was into Greenville Jct. at 08:08 with 8910/8883, 81 wells/154 containers, 9750 (DPU), 73 mixed freight (24 empty autoracks).

When they had a bit higher volume last year the infrastructure was completely strained and the port and RR got backlogged as I recall— they were unable at the time to handle in a timely way level of business they had
I read today in the wsj that euro export business is way down. Big Inflation in Europe has made their products less competitive. Euro-north America is what the hapag business driving cp traffic was serving and hapag calls on sj have been reduced for months

The extra calls went away last fall, it's been close to a consistent 1x ish a week
since then.

[Edited at 16:51]

120 was into Greenville Jct. at 14:54 with 9358/UP 8180/9762, 54 wells/83 containers, 2 empty wells, 43 mixed freight.

Thanks everyone for the info regarding CPKC Moosehead operation. Hopefully, trade with Europe will get cooking again soon and we will see a few more trains. Until that happens, there should be lots of time for track maintenance.

I saw the Herzog work train in Greenville the other day, so I guess CPKC is taking advantage.

The euro is at a lower exchange rate with the dollar at this time.I remember going to London 35 years ago and one English pound was worth 2.65 dollars, and today it is at 1.65 dollars.I would think that with a lower value for the euro vs dollar that exports to us would go up.They have higher energy prices than us ,which could effect prices.

I checked on pound vs dollar, its at 1 pound is worth 1.31 dollars which is half the exchange rate in1990

The issue is world wide. Hapag LLoyd by itself is down by both volume and rate charges. You can see the main numbers at: https://www.hapag-lloyd.com/content/dam ... 23_ENG.pdf
Other shippers are going to be similar.

I also checked the performance at Montreal and NY as of May 31 (latest available). Montreal is down about 13% and NY/NJ is down about 23%. Both figures compared to 2022. Saint John as of May 31 were reportedly matching 2022 numbers closely but they don't have any published figures for YTD.

Montreal: https://www.port-montreal.com/en/compon ... w-document

NY/NJ: https://www.panynj.gov/port/en/our-port ... gures.html

Hang in there. It's one of those cyclical things. 2022 was big up so 2023 is likely to be correcting back to historic trends.