Will help meet growth and customer focused service
plans
MONTREAL,
March 22, 2012 /PRNewswire/ - CN
(TSX: CNR) (NYSE: CNI) announced today a major locomotive
acquisition program to accommodate anticipated traffic growth and
to improve operational efficiency, enabling the railway to better
serve its customers.
CN will acquire 65 new high-horsepower locomotives
as well as 96 second-hand high-horsepower locomotives that will be
upgraded.
Keith Creel,
executive vice-president and chief operating officer, said: "CN's
locomotive acquisition program represents a balanced,
capital-effective approach to handle expected volume growth over
the next two to five years and to meet the locomotive requirements
resulting from customer focused service plans.
"The new and used motive power will enhance
operational efficiency and reduce fuel consumption by permitting
the retirement of older, high-maintenance locomotives and the
cascading of less fuel-efficient main-line units into
less-demanding yard and local switching operations, while providing
additional locomotives to accommodate increased traffic."
CN will take delivery in 2013-14 of 35 new ES44AC
locomotives from GE Transportation (GE), and 30 new SD70ACe
locomotives from Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD). The GE units have
4,400 and the SD70ACe units 4,300 horsepower.
Creel added: "The program includes the acquisition
of alternating-current locomotives (AC), which will represent a
first for CN. Our current fleet of approximately 1,900
locomotives employs direct-current (DC) traction technology, which
has served us well because of the overall favourable grades of our
network.
"We will harness the key advantage of AC traction -
much higher adhesion or train-pulling ability at low speeds -- in
assigning the new AC units to heavy-haul coal service in northern
British Columbia and Alberta, where steep grades and sharp rail
curvature make heavy demands on our locomotives."
CN will purchase this year 42 second-hand GE Dash
8-40C locomotives, 11 leased GE Dash 8-40C locomotives, and 43
second-hand EMD SD60 locomotives. The Dash 8 units have 4,000 and
the SD60s 3,800 horsepower. These direct-current technology
locomotives will be upgraded to CN specifications.
The new locomotives CN is purchasing are equipped
with distributed power technology (DP), a GE product, which
improves train handling and fuel efficiency. The company expects
that 50 per cent of its high-horsepower locomotive fleet will have
DP by the end of 2013.
DP technology permits remote control of a
locomotive or locomotives throughout a train from the lead control
unit. DP provides faster, smoother train starts, improved braking
and lower pulling forces at the head-end and within a train,
contributing significantly to improved safety. With more optimum
matching of motive power to train weight, DP locomotives also allow
CN to reduce fuel consumption and reduce emissions.
Creel said: "A robust, fuel-efficient locomotive
fleet is critical to CN's plan to take advantage of the traffic
growth we expect in the years ahead and to ensure we have the
motive-power assets to improve the supply chains of our customers
and enhance their competitiveness in domestic and global
markets."
CN - Canadian National Railway Company and its
operating railway subsidiaries - spans Canada and mid-America, from the Atlantic and
Pacific oceans to the Gulf of
Mexico, serving the ports of Vancouver, Prince
Rupert, B.C., Montreal,
Halifax, New Orleans, and Mobile, Ala., and the key metropolitan areas
of Toronto, Buffalo, Chicago, Detroit, Duluth,
Minn./Superior, Wis.,
Green Bay, Wis., Minneapolis/St. Paul, Memphis, and Jackson, Miss., with connections to all points
in North America. For more
information on CN, visit the company's website at www.cn.ca.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain information included in this news
release constitutes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning
of the United States Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and under Canadian
securities laws. CN cautions that, by their nature, these
forward-looking statements, including statements relating to
anticipated traffic growth, involve risks, uncertainties and
assumptions. The Company cautions that its assumptions may not
materialize and that current economic conditions render such
assumptions, although reasonable at the time they were made,
subject to greater uncertainty. Such forward-looking statements are
not guarantees of future performance and involve known and unknown
risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual
results or performance of the Company or the rail industry to be
materially different from the outlook or any future results or
performance implied by such statements.
Important risk factors that could affect the
forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the
effects of general economic and business conditions, industry
competition, inflation, currency and interest rate fluctuations,
changes in fuel prices, legislative and/or regulatory developments,
compliance with environmental laws and regulations, actions by
regulators, various events which could disrupt operations,
including natural events such as severe weather, droughts, floods
and earthquakes, labor negotiations and disruptions, environmental
claims, uncertainties of investigations, proceedings or other types
of claims and litigation, risks and liabilities arising from
derailments, and other risks detailed from time to time in reports
filed by CN with securities regulators in Canada and the
United States. Reference should be made to "Management's
Discussion and Analysis" in CN's annual and interim reports, Annual
Information Form and Form 40-F filed with Canadian and U.S.
securities regulators, available on CN's website, for a summary of
major risks.
CN assumes no obligation to update or revise
forward-looking statements to reflect future events, changes in
circumstances, or changes in beliefs, unless required by applicable
Canadian securities laws. In the event CN does update any
forward-looking statement, no inference should be made that CN will
make additional updates with respect to that statement, related
maters, or any other forward-looking statement.
SOURCE CN