Canada rails add workers, engines to halt winter woes

Canada’s two biggest railroads aren’t letting winter go unchallenged.

Canadian National Railway Co. (CNR) is strengthening its network, increasing employees and engines to keep trains running smoothly prevent another winter of icy and prevent another winter of profit-sapping gridlock. Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. (CP) is putting additional staff on standby, redeploying some equipment to “strategic” locations, and building new sidings in case below-average temperatures halt cargos.

“Last year was an extraordinary winter,” Canadian Pacific Chief Operating Officer Keith Creel said in a Dec. 15 interview in Toronto. “The rolling equipment, the air-brake systems, the steel that you ride the trains on, the locomotives that have to operate at 40 below zero — there are certain things that just don’t work when it gets this cold.”

Read the complete story at Bloomberg News.