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Ashcroft makes business sense

Editor: Re: Ashcroft isn't a realistic option for supply chain, letter to the editor, March 6 It was discouraging to read that a large, publiclytraded American company is challenging the logistics of Ashcroft Terminal as a solution to container conge

Editor:

Re: Ashcroft isn't a realistic option for supply chain, letter to the editor, March 6

It was discouraging to read that a large, publiclytraded American company is challenging the logistics of Ashcroft Terminal as a solution to container congestion in the Lower Mainland.

According to a 2014 Port Metro Vancouver study, the majority of import containers leave Vancouver directly, 68 per cent by train and eight per cent by truck. The other 24 per cent are trucked to facilities where most are reloaded into 53-foot containers and sent out of the Lower Mainland (19 per cent by rail and five per cent by truck). Of all import containers, 27 per cent are for B.C. As about 90 per cent of import containers leave the Vancouver area, it makes business sense to transload at Ashcroft Terminal where Canada's major rail lines meet (CNR and CPR).

Do we really want to use Canada's best farmland and scarce Vancouver-area properties to store empty containers and reload containers to send across Canada and into the U.S., which together account for 73 per cent of Vancouver's container business?

Susan Jones