MONTREAL, Que. –Recent congestion at the CP Rail intermodal terminal near Montreal is the port’s fault, not CP’s say officials.

Canadian Pacific today informed the Canadian International Freight Forwarders Association (CIFFA that they have no congestion and delay problems at their Lachine terminal, but that these are the result from a chronic summer vacation labor shortage at the Port of Montreal.

June was CP’s strongest single month ever experienced in the history of the port and similar figures are expected for July, and likely for August, added port officials.

They said the port has already experienced a nine per cent increase in volume in the first half of this year over last. And last year broke the record, they told CIFFA.

“In other words, the extremely rapid volume increases experienced this year have simply outgrown the capacity of our existing transport infrastructure,” a CIFFA news bulletin pointed out.

This despite the fact summer is considered a “slow period” for shippers, as most of Europe is on summer vacation.

CIFFA officials are therefore predicting even more backups at the CP Lachine terminal this fall and winter.