Canadian National RailwayCNI is gearing up for the upcoming winter months. To this end, Canadian National has unveiled its 2026–2027 Winter Plan, wherein the company reflects on the actions, investments and technologies it plans to implement in its railway operations to perform efficiently during the upcoming winter months.
The 2026–2027 Winter Plan has been built on the positive combination of network fluidity, equipment reliability and assurance of maintaining the right set of equipped people and resources, as and when needed during extreme weather conditions affecting the network.
CNI is improving the reliability of its fleet of more than 100 distributed air braking cars through predictive maintenance, which includes the replacement of 21 engines and compressors, and fleet-wide modifications manufactured to enhance air car performance in extreme cold. Since launching the program, CNI has invested almost $64 million in the technology.
To combat cold-weather conditions, CNI continues to advance high-flow brake system technology by using multiple air sources along a train. This shall help maintain stable brake pressure when air leakage increases in extreme cold. CNI is also pursuing a permanent regulatory exemption for the technology in Canada. Meanwhile, the company is also operating with higher airflow between Chicago and Winnipeg under a two-year U.S. regulatory waiver.
Other initiatives include the availability of proper staffing resources in the form of rapid deployment teams, rules-qualified managers and the temporary redeployment of qualified employees. The railroad company also assures it will maintain Mechanical and Engineering resources, snow-clearing equipment, backup power, critical materials and locomotives in important locations ahead of winter.
Tracy Robinson, president and chief executive officer at CNI, said, “Winter readiness is built into how we run the railway all year. We prepare our people, equipment and network well before winter arrives so that when conditions change, we can respond quickly, protect network fluidity and keep delivering safely and reliably for our customers.”
To sum up, the overall aim of this year's Winter Plan is to promote safe working conditions, meet customer demands, improve network performance and enhance network resilience.
CNI’s Share Price Performance
CNI’s shares have gained 17.3% over the past six months compared with the Transportation - Rail industry’s 12.9% growth.
Zacks Rank and Stocks to Consider
Canadian National carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Investors interested in the Zacks Transportation sector may consider Expeditors International of Washington, Inc. EXPD and Schneider National, Inc. (SNDR).
Expeditors currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
EXPD has an expected earnings growth rate of 28.6% for 2026. The company has an encouraging earnings surprise history. Its earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the trailing four quarters, delivering an average beat of 17.15%.
Schneider presently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
Schneider has an expected earnings growth rate of 65.08% for the current year. Schneider’s earnings outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate in two of the trailing four quarters (missed the mark in the remaining two quarters), delivering an average miss of 10.01%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Schneider’s full-year earnings has moved 14.29% north in the past 60 days.
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Canadian National Railway Company (CNI): Free Stock Analysis Report
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).