Celebrating Rail Safety Week with safety tips, awards and fun facts

At Nutrien, safely transporting our products via rail is one of our top priorities. That’s why, each year, we acknowledge Rail Safety Week – it’s an important reminder for everyone to keep safety at the forefront, whether you work directly with rail cars or are near a railway in the community.

“Across Nutrien, teams at our sites, terminals and supporting office functions prioritize rail safety each and every day, helping to ensure the secure transport of our products to protect the wellbeing of our employees and the communities we operate in,” says Elan Strueby, Vice President, Transportation, Distribution & Logistics (TDL). “This dedication to safety has earned our company numerous safety awards over the years, recognizing our excellence in safe and efficient rail operations. While these awards are a valued recognition of our efforts, it’s our reputation as a safe and reliable supplier to our customers and our stakeholders that is truly important.”

Check out Operation Lifesaver in Canada and the United States to learn more about how to stay safe around tracks and trains.

Nutrien takes home CPKC Safe Shipper Award

36 years ago, ammonia was first produced at Nutrien’s Joffre Nitrogen Operations and pumped 20km north to the Chigwell Distribution Terminal. Since then, our loadout teams have been prioritizing the safe shipping and handling of products, and their efforts have been rewarded. We’re proud to have received the 2023 Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) Safe Shipper Award.

“Congratulations to our Chigwell loadout team for earning this award,” says Stephen Hicks, General Manager, Joffre. “It’s great that our safety culture can be recognized beyond the footprint of our facility and that we are keeping all of the communities our products travel through safe as well.”

The Chigwell team has received the Safe Shipper Award for many years, which is a testament to their dedication to rail safety.

“This remarkable achievement highlights the team’s unwavering commitment to maintaining the highest standards in safety, product stewardship and distribution,” says Scott Cisco, Superintendent, Operations. “This achievement comes with a tremendous amount of dedication and ownership, and I want to congratulate the entire team for their hard work and commitment to excellence. Well done!”

Fun facts about Nutrien rail

• Nutrien utilizes more than 17,000 rail cars as part of our fleet.
• We invest more than $700 million USD annually in rail freight to transport approximately 22 million metric tonnes of manufactured fertilizer products and plant feedstock materials.
• We work with all seven Class 1 railroads across the US, Canada and Mexico, as well as more than 50 shortline rail partners.
• In 2023, our shipments covered 145,831,000 miles – which means that if we were shipping to outer space from Earth, our product would have reached Mars! (The distance from Earth to Mars is 140,000,000 miles.)