CN unveils new Winnipeg facility while Brampton yard at a standstill

WINNIPEG, (Sept. 11, 2003) — Canadian National Railway officially announced the opening of a new $16 million intermodal terminal at Symington Yard in Winnipeg yesterday.

The new terminal, which was relocated from CN’s older facility in south Winnipeg, is said to be able to handle 100,000 lifts per year (the number of containers transferred between trucks and trains), an increase from the 85,000 lift-per-year capacity of the older terminal.

“The new Winnipeg Intermodal Terminal is a more efficient, customer-friendly facility than the one it replaces,” Keith E. Creel, CN senior vice-president of Western Canada said. “Intermodal traffic is CN’s fastest-growing business segment, and this new facility will enable CN to meet the growing needs of our Winnipeg customers.”

Southern Ontario truckers will argue that’s not the case at CN’s intermodal terminal in Brampton, Ont. That facility has been the target of mounting driver and owner-operator frustration over extremely long wait times and yard congestion. Truckers who pick up and drop off containers at that facility have been protesting for nearly a week, demanding they get compensated for their time sitting idle at the yard.

Such protests are not new, and have been occurring at intermodal yards and shipping ports across the country for years. In May, truckers in Halifax blocked the gate of the Fairview Cove facility, protesting what they said were months of slow turnaround times at both of Halifax’s container terminals. Pressed to compensate the drivers, the terminal operator Cerescorp agreed to pay the drivers $10 for every full 15 minutes beyond two hours of waiting time.

In 1999 about 400 drivers operating at the Port of Vancouver went on strike for similar reasons, leaving more than 7000 containers stranded on the docks of Port Vancouver’s three container terminals.