REGINA, Sask. — Consolidated Fastfrate (CFF) has announced plans to move into Regina’s Global Transportation Hub with a 10,000 sq.-ft. cross-dock facility.

It will be co-located with CP Rail’s intermodal yard with construction set to begin this spring. The facility, on 10 acres of land, will be up and running by fall of 2013, the company announced.

“The relocation of Canadian Pacific (CP) and its intermodal facility to the GTH is significant to CFF,” said Ron Tepper, Consolidated Fastfrate executive chairman. “The relationship with CP started in 1966 and through this partnership over the following 20 years, Fastfrate became the largest boxcar shipper of LTL freight in Canada.”

“In 1998, a co-location program was then created to move Fastfrate from boxcar to intermodal, this required Fastfrate to invest into new facilities across the country and did so with CP intermodal,” added Tepper. “The result today is that Fastfrate has the newest and largest LTL infrastructure, and this has allowed the company to grow to the largest privately owned LTL shipper in the country handling in excess of two billion pounds of freight and over 600,000 shipments annually by rail.”

CP president and CEO Fred Green welcomed Fastfrate to the hub.

“In many ways CFF and CP pioneered the intermodal co-location strategy which facilitates streamlined transload processes between trucks and trains,” Green said. “For a number of customers, including CFF, co-location dramatically reduces costs, lowers transit times, and allows for new market growth.”

Regina Mayor Pat Fiacco said the announcement is another indication Regina’s Global Transportation Hub is taking off.

“Throughout the discussions of the relocation of CP’s intermodal yard to west Regina and the creation of the Global Transportation Hub, the co-location of related businesses has always been pivotal to the success of the GTH,” Fiacco said. “Today’s announcement affirms the vision for the GTH and the synergies that are created for the movement of goods.”