- CEO
- Tracy A. Robinson
- Full Time Employees
- 24,911
- Sector
- Industrials
- Industry
- Railroads
- Address
- 935 de La Gauchetiere Street West Montreal QC Canada H3B 2M9
- IPO Date
- Nov 22, 1996
- Business
- Canadian National Railway Company (CN) operates North America's largest freight rail network, spanning approximately 20,000 route-miles across Canada from Halifax to Vancouver and into 16 U.S. states in the Midwestern and Southern regions, connecting three coasts and transporting over C$250 billion worth of goods annually including resource products, manufactured goods, and consumer products; core services encompass rail freight in commodities such as grain and grain products, forest products, coal, sulfur, fertilizers, intermodal containers, automotive, petroleum and chemicals, metals and minerals, temperature-controlled cargo, and dimensional loads; additional offerings include integrated logistics solutions like intermodal container services with 23 terminals, door-to-door shipping, customs brokerage, transload and distribution, trucking via CN subsidiary CNTL, and specialized equipment such as flatbed trucks and on-deck mobile services.
Founded in 1919 through the amalgamation of several government-nationalized railways and privatized in 1995, CN is headquartered at 935 de La Gauchetière Street West in Montreal, Quebec, and employs around 24,000 railroaders while serving diverse sectors from resource extraction to manufacturing across North America.
In recent developments, CN completed its acquisition of the Iowa Northern Railway in January 2025 following Surface Transportation Board approval, integrating operations to enhance grain, ethanol, and biofuel transport in Iowa; the company announced a C$3.4 billion capital investment program for 2025 focused on network capacity, infrastructure upgrades, and safety including $110 million in Wisconsin, $50 million in Louisiana, and similar multimillion-dollar commitments across Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois, and other regions; strategic partnerships expanded with a September 2025 collaboration with CSX for new intermodal rail service into Nashville and an October 2025 alliance with Congebec for cold chain logistics; CN also launched initiatives like a medium horsepower hybrid locomotive pilot, expanded its firefighting fleet, and appointed Madeleine Paquin to its board of directors in September 2025.