Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll begin and then pass it over to my colleague James.
I'm Jeff Ellis, Chief Legal Officer at Canadian Pacific. I'm joined by James Clements, our Vice-President of Strategic Planning and Transportation Services.
Thank you for the opportunity to discuss CP's grain service and the recent challenges the grain supply chain has been experiencing. We acknowledge that as a supply chain we need to do better.
First, however, let us begin with some context.
Although the grain supply chain has had to manage significant operating challenges in recent weeks, including a recovery from extreme weather conditions this winter, CP's crop year-to-date grain shipments through week 32, which is March 4 through March 10, have increased by 3%, or approximately 450,000 metric tons, the equivalent to roughly 22,000 truckloads of grain. In other words, we've moved more grain this crop year, even while the entire grain supply chain copes with difficult operating conditions.
Extreme weather has been a challenge for CP this year, especially in February. Although we plan extensively for winter each year, this winter was unusually harsh. Compared to last year, conditions across our network were on average significantly colder, and for longer periods of time. We've also experienced unusually large snowfalls along much of our network, causing some significant outages. When temperatures reach below -25°C, trains must be shortened and moved at slower speeds to ensure safety, which is critical to our operations. These difficult conditions caused a reduction in our network velocity and overall system capacity.
CP is also experiencing significant and largely unexpected demand, especially in western Canada, part of which is coming from dual rail-served territories in the northern catchment areas of our network.
CP strategically plans each year for the upcoming grain crop. This year the crop was originally forecast at approximately 65 million metric tons, but came in at closer to 71 million metric tons. This variation represents a difference of 6 million metric tons, with much of the additional production occurring in the northern catchment area of the Canadian prairies because of dry conditions in the south. Notwithstanding the challenging operating environment, our shipments have increased by 30% in this crop year to date.
It's also important to note that we are facing significant demand across numerous lines of business.
All of that said, we can and will do better. My colleague, James Clements, is going to speak to that more specifically.