In mid-September 2016, the first cars for the future transport of potash from the new Legacy site to Vancouver harbour were handed over to K+S Potash Canada (KSPC) by the Canadian manufacturer, National Steel Car (NSC). The cars, specially designed for KSPC, are shorter than conventional freight cars but have the same capacity – around 105 t – meaning more cars can be used per freight train (Figure 6). Thanks to a special opening mechanism, the cars can be loaded while in motion. KSPC has placed an initial order of more than 500 freight cars from NSC and the fleet of cars is due to be expanded at a later stage as production increases.
Each freight train will consist of 177 of these cars and have a total length of roughly 3 km. The freight trains will be used to transport the potash to be produced at the Legacy site out of Saskatchewan province and over the Rocky Mountains to Port Moody in Vancouver harbour, some 1,800 km away. Here, KSPC and its partner PCT are currently building the most cutting-edge potash terminal in the world, where potash products will be loaded onto ships and transported to customers. Some of the car fleet will also be used to transport products to the USA. (K+S/Si.)