CN grain plan builds on strong performance

CN today published its 2024-2025 Grain Plan, which builds on the Company’s successful operational improvements and strategic capital investments from the previous grain season.

“We are confident that we have the right approach and resources in place to move this year’s Canadian grain crop efficiently. We continue to lean into our scheduled railroading model and making sure that our ongoing capital investments position us for success again this year. Working with supply chain stakeholders and governments, we are taking steps to address several regulatory issues impacting the sector, to remove obstacles so we can focus our attention on continuing to deliver even better service to our customers.” - Tracy Robinson, President and Chief Executive Officer, CN

The CN Grain Plan highlights several new actions and initiatives for 2024-25. These include:

• the delivery of 750 new high-efficiency grain hopper cars this crop year,
• a continued focus on scheduled railroading which has produced demonstrated improvement since implementation in 2022-23,
• deployment of new firefighting equipment to help protect the supply chain, and
• the use of new technologies to improve safety, such as testing new mobile fire detection equipment and the continued use of CN’s autonomous track inspection program.

CN is focused on developing and preparing our people for the upcoming grain season. A major priority for this year, is ongoing employee engagement, recruiting and training as we continue to manage a challenging labour market and the impacts of the federal regulatory environment that has created difficulties in maintaining crew availability.

CN’s annual Grain Plan is prepared through extensive consultation with, and input from, key stakeholders, including the CN Agricultural Advisory Council – a group of western Canadian farmers and industry leaders. The plan assesses and describes in detail the Company’s ability to move anticipated levels of grain during the upcoming crop year. It also outlines specific steps CN is taking to ensure it has the capacity to move grain safely and efficiently on behalf of farmers, customers, and supply chain partners.