As the Canadian farmers sell their grains into a competitive global market, one of the biggest impediments to their success is the inefficiency of the current grain car fleet.
The most effective way to enhance the competitive position of Canada's grain farmers is to replace the existing Canadian grain car fleet, as it is past its useful life—obsolete and inefficient, from a variety of standpoints. The design is outdated. It provides a lower carrying capacity. There are inefficiencies in the loading and unloading. The dimensional envelope is outdated. As a result of the age of the cars, there's a high cost of maintenance and repairs because of obsolete parts.
This is our vision of a competitive solution for the Canadian agriculture industry.
Some of the key benefits to the grain producers are a 23% increase in the capacity. There's greater efficiency in performance through the entire supply chain and there's a lower carbon footprint for the sector.
With respect to the statistics comparing the new fleet to the existing fleet, we refer to gross rail load, GRL. That's the maximum load that can be carried on rail, combining the empty weight of a rail car and the loading weight or the payload.
As you'll see with the new fleet of cars, there's a 9% GRL increase. The cars are 4,000 pounds lighter than the existing cars. As a result, there are 27,000 pounds more grain in every rail car.
As a result of the increase in cubic capacity, there's a 15.5% increase. Due to the shorter length of car, there are also nine additional cars for every train start. There's also a 20% increase in the siding capacity as a result of the shorter car.
There are more efficient loading opportunities, and that's good news for farmers.
As I mentioned earlier, there are nine additional cars in every train, again resulting in a reduced carbon footprint.
There are only three discharge gates on the new cars, and that results in a 25% reduction in handling and reduced maintenance.
The average age of the current fleet is over 35 years of age. The new cars are designed for a 50-year life. This results in a 25% increase in the design life and provides for a modern and efficient fleet.
As a result of the additional capacity in the tonnage, there are over 2,800 tonnes more grain moved in every train start. That's a 21% increase.
There's a 23% increase in the overall cubic foot capacity of the train, resulting in over 145,000 cubic feet. The railways are increasing the length of trains all the time, so this improvement provides additional opportunity for extra grain movement.
Our summary of the economic assessment, assuming a three-year program, will result in 2,600 direct jobs. A conservative factor for the number of induced jobs is 10,500.
There will be 285,000 tonnes of steel consumed by this program, and the Canadian content will be 75%.
The supply chain for this program reaches right across Canada, as outlined in this table. I won't review it all, but you'll note the province and the commodity that can be provided.