Page 81 - InvestAlberta-EDA-2025

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“EVERY TIME THERE’S AN INVESTMENT AND A NEW SUPPLY
CHAIN, RAIL COMES INTO PLAY AND IF YOU LOOK AT ALBERTA,
THERE’S NOWHERE ELSE IN CANADA WHERE THIS MUCH
INDUSTRIAL INVESTMENT IS TAKING PLACE.”
— JOSH HUSTER, CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER,
ALPENGLOW RAIL
rebranded as VIP Rail Alberta Midland. The terminal’s site spans 300
acres, and includes 1,740 railcar storage spots, transload infrastructure
and a unit train-capable loop track, with significant capacity and its
important location making the terminal well-positioned to support
Alberta’s growing industries.
“Our customers were pushing for us to find an opportunity to invest
in Alberta because we were doing a great job for them in other locations,
including VIP Rail where we own two rail terminals in Sarnia, Ontario,”
explains Huster. “This was a great business. The original owners ran it well,
they had a good customer base, it was a good location — it wasn’t broken
in any way. We just saw an opportunity for significant growth and that was
driven by what was happening in the Alberta Industrial Heartland.”
VIP Rail Alberta Midland is located in Alberta’s Industrial Heartland,
a region that over the past 25 years has seen more than 40 companies
build out operations and has more than $45 billion in existing capital
investment on the books, ensuring that the area’s supply-chain needs
continue to be met.
As a landlocked province, rail is an important mode of transportation to
support the export of goods being produced to key markets in the United
States and Asia. In 2023, Alberta manufacturing exports by rail were $14.4
billion, an increase of $5.35 billion from 2013.
“Rail is a major strength of ours because there’s only a few places in
Canada where there’s a critical mass of industrial land zoned and ready to
go at a very low cost that has access to both national railways like this,” says
Shane Olson, economic development manager with Lamont County.
Rail is an effective and cost-efficient way to move bulk products long
distances. While Canada’s two largest Class 1 railways (CN and CPKC) connect
Alberta to ports on the west and east coasts of Canada, as well as destinations
in the United States and Mexico through numerous north-south lines, there’s
an extensive network of short-line rail operators and trucking companies that
help with first and last mile deliveries.
VIP Rail Alberta Midland has been enhancing that network since
the new owners arrived in 2022. The company has added approximately
300 railcar storage spots and is preparing to add another phase of
storage expansion in 2025. The company has also significantly grown the
transloading business, allowing customers to transfer products from truck
to railcars. To meet growing transload demand, VIP Rail Alberta Midland
now also operates its own trucking fleet and has doubled its employee base.
“Every time there’s an industry investment and a new supply chain, rail
comes into play and if you look at Alberta, there’s nowhere else in Canada
where this much industrial investment is taking place,” says Huster. “It’s a place
that creates opportunities for a company like ours that’s well capitalized and
focused on creating rail solutions for our customers. That’s a perfect storm for
opportunity and growth.”
NEXT STOP,
MEXICO
In March 2023, Canadian Pacific Railway
had its $31 billion US acquisition of Kansas City
Southern Railway approved after a 15-month
regulatory review. The purchase led to the newly
branded CPKC, creating the first and only
single-line railway connecting the United States,
Mexico and Canada.
Since merging the railways, the company’s
energy, chemicals and plastics market segment
is seeing record volumes and, after recording
$712 million CDN in revenue during the third
quarter of 2024, it was CPKC’s highest revenue
generator. The company states that much of that
product originates in Alberta and is exported
to Mexico to keep up with increasing demand
from the construction, automotive, electrical and
electronics industries, and support the country’s
foreign direct investment growth of $7.9 billion
from 2020 to 2023.
AMPLIFY. ATTRACT. ACCELERATE.
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