CP Rail has announced that it plans to invest more than half a billion dollars on new high-capacity grain hopper cars. Five hundred of these new cars will be in service before the end of the year.

Over the next four years, CP plans to order approximately 5,900 hopper cars in total, removing all low-capacity hoppers, including all Government of Canada cars, from the fleet.

The new hopper cars can handle more than 15 percent greater volume and 10 percent greater load weight than the cars being retired.

The investment is made possible by changes to the Maximum Revenue Entitlement (MRE) formula through the passage of the Transportation Modernization Act.

CP will be the first Class 1 railway to receive hoppers as a result of the act's changes.

In addition, more than 700 new CP employees are now in training, and 100 locomotives will join the fleet before summer's end.