Profit down but revenue rises as Canada’s largest railway hauls record amount of grain
The company on Tuesday said revenues were $4.1 billion for the quarter ending Sept. 30, an increase of $123 million from the same time last year, and net income of about $1.09 billion, which was down from $1.11 billion a year ago.
“We bounced back quickly,” she said.
Robinson pointed to the railway maintaining strong local service levels and hauling a record amount of Western Canadian grain as indicators of their strength. Derek Taylor, chief operations officer, said September was a record month for grain movement.
Robinson said the arbitration process with the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference is underway and proceeding as expected as the two sides try to come to an agreement on a new labour deal. The old agreement expired at the end of 2023 and the union called for a strike in August, though the federal labour board soon ordered rail employees back to work.
“This gives us labour stability on the railway,” she said.
While painting an overall rosy picture for the railroad’s business, Robinson said the company is seeing some softening, which has led to a decrease in demand in some areas and to making some changes on hiring.
“We stopped hiring on certain parts of the network earlier this year,” she said.
Robinson said the company is looking to have surge capacity in place in certain locations along their network to support increasing demand, specifically in its eastern and southern regions.
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