PHOENIX — Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) and Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc. have entered into a new multi-year agreement to provide truckload intermodal transportation service on CPKC’s new single-line north-south corridor connecting Mexico, the United States and Canada.
“This agreement creates compelling new transportation solutions for Knight-Swift’s current and future customers looking for optionality and increased capacity in their supply chains,” said John Brooks, CPKC executive vice president and chief marketing officer. “As Knight-Swift transition their Mexico-U.S. traffic to CPKC starting in mid-May, we will focus on growth between Chicago, Texas and Mexico markets.”
Adam Miller, Knight-Swift Transportation CFO and Swift president, said the agreement with CPKC “will provide another differentiated solution for our customers and their over-arching supply chains.”
“The Knight-Swift team is looking forward to engaging with the CPKC railroad on service offerings, customer solution design and demand planning to help facilitate growth on the first single-line railroad connecting Mexico, the United States and Canada,” Miller added. “Our Transmex team and growing less-than-load offering will also benefit from the newly created railroad and will allow us to continue supporting our customers in new and different ways by providing thoughtful solutions with a solid underlying service product.”
According to a news release, CPKC’s International Railroad Bridge over the Rio Grande River at the U.S.-Mexico border at Laredo, Texas, offers an alternative to congested highway ports of entry.
“A second span to expand the bridge’s capacity and further increase the efficiency of cross-border train movements is currently under construction and expected to be completed by the end of 2024,” the news release noted.
Anticipated environmental benefits of CPKC include the avoidance of more than 1.6 million tons of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions due to the expected improved operational efficiency of CPKC versus current operations and another 300,000 tons of GHG emissions with the diversion of 64,000 trucks to rail for a total reduction of 1.9 million tons of GHG emissions over the next five years.
Diverting 64,000 long-haul truck shipments to rail annually with new CPKC intermodal services will reduce total truck vehicle miles travelled by almost 2 billion miles over the next two decades, saving $750 million in highway maintenance costs, according to the news release.