Factbox – Key facts about Canada’s biggest rail operators as massive work disruption looms By Reuters

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada is facing unprecedented simultaneous shutdowns at both of its major rail freight operators that could cause billions of dollars in economic damage.

The two rail operators, Canadian National Railway (TSX:) and Canadian Pacific (NYSE:) Kansas City, is in separate talks with the Teamsters union, which represents about 10,000 locomotive workers, conductors, train and yard workers and rail traffic controllers.

Talks are currently deadlocked, and the rail companies say they will begin locking out workers on August 22 if a labor agreement is not reached.

Here are some key facts about the two rail operators:

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:

CN Rail’s history dates back to the 1830s, but it was not officially incorporated until 1919. Headquartered in Montreal, the company was owned by the government until it was taken public in 1995. Through its acquisitions of Illinois Central Corp and Wisconsin Central in late the 1990s and the early 2000s, CN expanded its rail network into the Great Lakes region and into the Gulf of Mexico.

CPKC’s history dates back to the 1880s. Formerly known as CP Rail, it was built to connect Canada from coast to coast. CP Rail was once involved in several businesses, including mining and hospitality, and built and owned iconic Canadian properties such as the Banff Springs Hotel, the Royal York in Toronto and Château Frontenac in Quebec City.

Calgary-headquartered CP Rail spun off its other businesses in 2001. It bought Kansas City Southern (NYSE: ) Railway in 2021 and became CPKC, forming the first single-line railroad to connect the US, Mexico and Canada .

HOLIDAY NETWORKS

Although some US rail operators have small branch lines entering Canada, CN Rail and CPKC have a duopoly and are the two dominant freight rail operators in the country. With coast-to-coast networks, the duo account for the vast majority of all rail industry revenue in the country, own more than 75% of all tracks and account for around three-quarters of the total tonnage carried by the rail sector. in Canada.

For Canada, the two operators serve as important links in the supply chain to trade corridors and ports on the North American continent.

CN Rail, which employs about 25,000 people, has a network that stretches from Vancouver to Halifax in Canada and as far as New Orleans.

CPKC, which employs approximately 20,000 people, has a network that runs from Vancouver to Montreal. It also connects to the ports of Corpus Christi, New Orleans, and Gulfport on the Gulf of Mexico, and further south connects to the ports of Tampico and Lázaro Cárdenas on the east and west coasts of Mexico.

INCOME MIX

In 2023, 25% of CN Rail’s freight revenue came from grain, fertilizer and coal; metals, minerals and forest products represented 24% of the revenue mix; and the rest were petroleum products, chemicals, machinery and intermodal container cargo.

In 2023, 35% of CPKC’s freight revenue came from coal, grain, potash and fertilizer shipments. Forest products, energy, chemicals, metals and machinery accounted for 45% of its revenue mix, with the rest coming from intermodal container cargo.

PRIOR STOP

In 2019, approximately 3,200 unionized CN Rail workers, including conductors and yard workers, went on strike for eight days in Canada. That strike led to heating fuel shortages, large backlogs and a slowdown in industrial production at factories that make goods from chemicals to canola oil.

In 2018, a one-day strike ended after the Teamsters and CP Rail reached a four-year contract. And in 2015, CP Rail and the Teamsters agreed to seek mediated arbitration, ending another short-lived strike.

In 2012, around 4,800 CP Rail train drivers, conductors and yard workers went on strike for a week which ended only after the government introduced back-to-work legislation at a time when the economy was still recovering from the global financial crisis. and a recession.