Good morning, everyone. I'm Andrew Fuller and I'm the assistant vice-president for sales and marketing for domestic intermodal at CN. We appreciate this opportunity to appear before your committee today on the important topic of trade corridors.
Today marks the beginning of Rail Safety Week across Canada. Our team of railroaders will be on the ground all week in many of our neighbouring communities, sharing a message of awareness and tips about our shared responsibility for safety around rails. CN is a proud partner of Operation Lifesaver, whose 2018 rail safety campaign #STOPTrackTragedies will reach millions of Canadians all over the country. There are actually signs and boards in many communities where you can pledge support for rail safety awareness in all communities across Canada.
CN employs about 24,000 Canadians across the country, and it transports more than 250 billion dollars' worth of goods across a North American rail network that covers roughly 20,000 route miles. As a reminder, our network stretches from Vancouver and Prince Rupert on the west coast to Halifax on the Atlantic coast and to New Orleans and Baton Rouge in the American south. We serve ports on all three coasts. In Canada, we serve all the major ports, including Vancouver and Prince Rupert on the west coast and Montreal and Halifax on the east coast. We also serve Thunder Bay, carrying grain and other products that move on the seaway system.
CN has a significant footprint across Ontario, serving thousands of businesses and supporting a large number of local jobs. We have the largest terminals of their kind in the CN system. Our classification yard in Vaughan and our intermodal yard in Brampton move over one million containers annually.
CN's business is very diversified, both in terms of the traffic we move and where we move it. Thirty-four per cent of our traffic moves across the Canada–U.S. border, 17% moves domestically in Canada, 25% is exported from the west coast ports, and 6% is exported from the east coast ports. You may not be aware that CN also operates a fleet of ships that move iron ore and other products on the Great Lakes system.
CN crosses the Canada-U.S. border in eight locations, but our primary points of entry are the CN rail tunnel between Sarnia, Ontario, and Port Huron, Michigan, and our crossing between Fort Frances, Ontario, and Ranier, Minnesota, which together handle about 85% our our cross-border traffic. We move a significant amount of container traffic, known as intermodal traffic, which comes from Asia through the ports of Prince Rupert and Vancouver, then on through Fort Frances to the U.S. market in Chicago, Detroit, and south to Memphis and beyond.
CN is investing heavily to grow our capacity and strengthen our network in Ontario. Our 2018 capital investment plan includes the investment of approximately $315 million to expand and strengthen Ontario's rail infrastructure. The Ontario investments are part of CN's record $3.5 billion capital program for 2018, which represents roughly 25% of our revenue base in 2018 alone.
Key investments include a new passing siding on our transcontinental corridor through northern Ontario, linking Toronto and Winnipeg, and intermodal rail yard expansions that will improve the efficient movement of containers into and out of the greater Toronto and Hamilton areas. Other capital program elements will focus on the replacement, upgrade and maintenance of key track infrastructure to improve overall safety, capacity and efficiency.
We are working with all levels of government to align our inland capacity to support port expansion and population growth in the population centres of southern Ontario. To address increased demand, we plan to invest $250 million in a satellite intermodal facility in Milton, which will enhance volumes and relieve the strain of overcapacity being felt in our facility in Brampton. The Milton logistics hub has been strategically located to support the logistics and warehousing industry in the west GTHA. It will support up to 1,000 jobs while also relieving highway pressure on the 401 and QEW highways, which I took this morning.
This project is good for movement of both goods and people. This project will facilitate the modal shift of goods from long-haul trucks to trains, reducing emissions and alleviating congestion. The project is undergoing an environmental assessment by a three-member independent review panel under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency and the Canadian Transportation Agency.
CN will continue to make investment decisions that benefit the supply chain and its users and ensure that product gets moved to market in a timely manner.
We look forward to continuing to work with the Government of Canada to strengthen trade corridors and ultimately the transportation network across the country.
Thank you.