CN delivered a record volume of grain during the 2024-2025 crop year. Photo credit to Pascale Simard,/Alpha Presse.
CN (Canadian National Railway) has released its 2025–2026 Grain Plan.
It’s a plan that demonstrates CN’s ongoing commitment to delivering high-performance service through disciplined planning, targeted infrastructure investments, and proactive supply chain collaboration.
For this past crop year, the railroad announced that it had delivered a record volume of grain to both domestic and international markets.
Current projections from the railroad suggest that Western Canadian movement for 2024-25 will total approximately 31 MMT, roughly one million metric tonnes higher than the previous record. That figure includes bulk and processed grain by carload.
Tracy Robinson, the President and Chief Executive Officer at CN, stated, “Our Grain Plan reflects CN’s unwavering commitment to Canadian agriculture and the global competitiveness of our farmers and grain handlers.
“We’ve taken a comprehensive, end-to-end view of the supply chain by investing where it matters most, collaborating with partners, and ensuring we have the people, equipment, and processes in place to move the new crop,” she continued.
Highlights from the 2025–2026 Grain Plan include:
- Capacity to Meet Demand: CN anticipates moving 27.0 to 29.5 million metric tonnes (MMT) of grain and processed grain products during the 2025–2026 crop year. The company has sufficient resources in place to meet demand under normal operating conditions.
- Innovative Supply Chain Coordination: CN is changing the way it distributes empty hopper cars originating from West Coast ports to improve visibility and planning with customers. Instead of distributing cars from major rail hubs in the Prairies, CN will distribute cars as they depart Vancouver. Customers will also have enhanced visibility on tracking their rail shipments through CN’s rail shipment tracking tool.
- End-to-End Transparency: Through CN’s Western Canadian Grain Report and operational dashboards, stakeholders have access to weekly updates on car orders, supply chain conditions, and system fluidity.
The 2025–2026 Grain Plan reinforces CN’s long-standing support for Canada’s agriculture sector.
CN investments will continue to enable the success of Canadian farmers, strengthen agricultural trade across North America, and connect Canada to markets around the world.
With its nearly 20,000-mile rail network and related transportation services, CN connects Canada’s eastern and western coasts with the US Midwest and the US Gulf Coast, contributing to sustainable trade and the prosperity of the communities in which it has operated since 1919.
For more information and to access the full 2025–2026 CN Grain Plan, visit www.cn.ca/grain.