CN Rail has announced a series of capacity improvements to accommodate growing container volumes at its Brampton Intermodal Terminal, located north of Toronto.


BIT is Canada's largest rail intermodal terminal and a key component in CN's distribution network -- almost 60 per cent of the railway's system-wide intermodal business touches the terminal.

"Intermodal is one of CN's fastest-growing business segments," says Claude Mongeau, president and CEO of CN. "We are investing in new track, equipment and other infrastructure improvements at BIT to take our intermodal service offering to the next level in efficiently distributing growing overseas container traffic reaching our network over Canadian ports as well as rising domestic intermodal shipments across Canada. These investments will increase supply chain efficiencies for our customers and help them grow their businesses."

CN's BIT improvements include:
* The installation of new track and extension of existing track to increase rail capacity by close to 15 per cent;
* Creation of approximately 25 per cent more ground space for international containers by staging CN containers offsite;
* Purchasing five new cranes in 2011, after the acquisition of five new ones last fall, and,
* Increasing the labor force by about 10 per cent in 2011.

These customer-focused initiatives follow construction of new entry and exit lanes for truckers last December that increased BIT's gate throughput by 33 per cent. BIT's 2011 intermodal volumes through the end of April increased by 12 per cent over the same period in 2010. CN's total 2010 intermodal volumes increased by 17 per cent over 2009 to 1.4 million units, while intermodal revenues last year rose by 18 per cent to nearly C$1.6 million.