Canadian National railroad plans to wrest some business from trucks. Just a 1% market share gain from trucks would generate additional rail revenue of $300 million in Canada and $3 billion in the United States, CN President and CEO Paul Tellier told the Canadian Railway Club Tuesday.

CN intends "to earn a big share of that revenue," Tellier vowed, acknowledging that improved service, especially reliability, will largely determine the success of CN -- and the railroad industry -- in wresting traffic away from trucks.
Tellier said CN has taken steps to provide better service and seize new market share and revenue. It has implemented a comprehensive service plan for carload and intermodal traffic that offers shippers the consistency and reliability they associate with trucks. It also Introduced RoadRailer highway/railroad technology to improve its intermodal product in the Toronto-Montreal corridor. It is studying other possible routes.
The service plan generates trip plans for individual shipments measured in hours, not days. By year-end, CN expects to achieve a 90% on-time performance for carload and intermodal shipments.
Canadian National Railway spans Canada and mid-America, from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans to the Gulf of Mexico, serving the ports of Vancouver, Montreal, Halifax, New Orleans, and Mobile, AL, and the key cities of Toronto, Buffalo, Chicago, Detroit, Memphis, St. Louis, and Jackson, MS.