Weekly "Focus" and Union Station

After years of a delayed renovation, Toronto’s main downtown railway hub, Union Station, is finally nearing completion. The renovation has created 170,000 square feet of new space and brought to the station 30 new retailers, good news for the station’s 300,000 daily visitors (ii). Given the hassle of air travel these days, wouldn’t it be great if high speed rail could be introduced for high volume routes linking cities such as Toronto and Montreal. So far in 2024, the publicly traded railroad companies have had nominal returns. The sector is covered by BMO Capital Markets analyst Fadi Chamoun, and according to his “Freight Volumes Weekly” report, activity is still running below pre-Covid levels which he believes creates an opportunity for further recovery.

 

		Total Return in 2024		Dividend Yield
Canadian National Railway* (CNR)		+2.8%		2.0%
Canadian Pacific Kansas City* (CP)		+7.1%		0.7%
CSX* (CSX)		-1.5%		1.4%
Norfolk Southern* (NSC)		+2.4%		2.2%
Union Pacific* (UNP)		-0.3%		2.1%

Source: FactSet, Values as of April 25, 2024

 

This week’s "Focus" from our economics team is attached.

 

Have a great weekend,

 

Brad

Senior Portfolio Manager and Senior Investment Advisor