West Coast Port Dwell Times Increase

Due to extreme cold temperatures the past few weeks in Western Canada, CN and CP enacted their Winter Operating Plan last week. This included train length restrictions from Prince Rupert and Vancouver to Eastern Canada. With the railways running shorter trains, this directly impacted the increase in dwell times as they were not able to evacuate containers quickly enough from the port. Additionally the surge of volumes from the pre- Lunar New Year cargo also played a factor.

Specifically the port of Prince Rupert increased their dwell time from their normal 4 days average, to over 7 days average in the past 2 weeks. The dwell time of 7+ days is expected to remain at that level until the end of the month.

The weather has moderated in Western Canada this week, and the train lengths have return to normal, which should help with the flow of containers moving forward.

OEC is working with all stakeholders to ensure the quickest possible evacuation and understand the importance of getting containers moving quickly.