GWR expands grain hopper fleet

Great Western Railway Ltd., Saskatchewan, has acquired 150 grain hopper railcars from the Government of Saskatchewan, following a competitive bidding process. This is GWR’s first purchase of its kind since the railway’s inception, when it was formed from lines purchased from Canadian Pacific in 2000.

“This is a very large and important investment for us and our shareholders,” said GWR General Manager Andrew Glastetter. “In the ever-changing Canadian grain market, we have been active to seek new opportunities to move more grain along our railway and off to export markets.”

Glastetter said CP is committed to provide GWR “with consistent car supply. Along with some operational changes we have made internally over the past couple of years, our railcar supply availability from CP has been at 100% almost every week since the fall of 2015. This has been the case even during the busiest periods and when supply was tight elsewhere. With this new investment in our car fleet, we are in a position to provide even more confidence in railcar availability, plus we have the added flexibility of short-term storage and handling of grain traffic off our line.”

During the past two years, Great Western Railway “has continued to return record-setting investment back into the operation, including increased track maintenance, new track infrastructure, purchase of additional track and land, expanding and upgrading our locomotive fleet, plus additional on- and off-track heavy equipment acquisitions,” Glastetter said. “As we position ourselves for growth, we have expanded our employee base and continue to grow and develop our team of qualified and dedicated people. We see this current railcar purchase as another significant step forward in providing the highest level of service and reliability to our global shippers and the local growers across Southwest Saskatchewan.”

Great Western Railway, independently owned, is Saskatchewan’s largest short line, operating approximately 450 route-miles in Southwest Saskatchewan. The railway serves various global shippers, and an expanding customer base of local industries in agriculture, energy, potash and aggregates.