Canada National Railway, the country’s largest rail freight provider, has opened a C$14m automotive compound at its at MacMillan yard north of Toronto to better serve key markets in Ontario. It will be operated by CN Worldwide’s Autoport subsidiary.
According to the company, the Toronto Automotive Compound can now accommodate the unloading of 60 vehicle-carrying rail cars at once, more than double what the former MacMillan compound was able to provide with its 27 bays. It will have storage capacity for up to 4,500 vehicles and this will increase to 6,000 in phase two of the planned expansion.
"Over the past number of years traffic growth has outstripped the 27-rail car capacity at the former site,” CN Railway spokesman Mark Hallman told Automotive Logistics. " Existing track structure at the new site has allowed for the significant increase in capacity and will allow the compound to have expansion capability for the foreseeable future."
The 45-acre compound is one of 17 vehicle distribution facilities operated by Autoport in Canada and the US. Autoport provides a range of value-added services at Toronto, including dealer PDI and pick-up, storage management and battery maintenance, vehicle modifications/accessorisation, all supported by a 60,000ft2 vehicle processing building, said Hallman.
CN has rail access to all vehicle assembly plants in Canada, numerous assembly plants in Michigan and one in Mississippi, and taps parts production facilities in Michigan and Ontario. It serves shippers of import vehicles via the ports of Halifax and Vancouver, and through interchange with other railroads.
