Beginning June 1, 2020, CP amended its definition of "Cars On Line" in order to match our internal monitoring and performance measures. The revised definition will also better align with other Class 1 reported Cars On Line data. CP’s Cars On Line definition will no longer include inactive cars stored on CP lines, nor private cars stored on private lines.

Previous definition – Cars On Line: ​​Cars On Line is defined as the average of the daily on-line inventory of freight cars. Articulated cars are counted as a single unit. Cars on private tracks (e.g., at a customer's facility) are counted on the last railroad on which they were located. Maintenance of way cars are excluded.

New definition – Cars On Line: Cars On Line is defined as the average of the daily on-line inventory of active freight cars. Articulated cars are counted as a single unit. Stored cars, heavy bad order cars, program cars, maintenance of way cars, private cars on customer tracks and cars located on adjacent short lines are excluded.

A spreadsheet showing the impact of these changes on our historical results can be downloaded HERE.

Beginning January 1, 2018, CP adopted a new accounting standard for the presentation of net periodic pension cost and net periodic post-retirement benefit cost. CP will report its financial results according the new accounting standards beginning in Q1 2018.

The accounting standard change requires all components of net periodic benefit costs other than current service costs to be reported outside of operating income.

The change in presentation affects CP’s operating ratio and operating income, but does not change net income, earnings per share, or cash.

CP filed a restatement of prior periods which can be found HERE. For restatement data in Excel format please click HERE

In Q1 2016, CP amended its definition of "Employees."  CP's prior employee definition reflected only full-time employees who had worked more than 40 hours in a pay period; as our business continues to change and evolve, the company has determined that a better and more fulsome definition should capture all employees regardless of the number of hours worked. 

The definition of workforce – the metric most commonly referenced by management – remains unchanged.

Previous definition - Employee: ​An employee is defined as an individual, including trainees, who has worked more than 40 hours in a standard biweekly pay period. This excludes part time employees, contractors, and consultants.

New definition - Employee: An employee is defined as an individual currently engaged in full-time or part-time employment with CP.

• Workforce is defined as employees plus contractors and consultants.​

A spreadsheet summarizing the impact to CP's historical employee counts can be found HERE

Billings to third parties for the recovery of costs incurred for freight car repairs and servicing have been reclassified from “Purchased services and other” to “​Compensation and benefits” and “Materials” in order to match the billings with the costs incurred on behalf of the third parties. Total operating expenses are unchanged as a result of this reclassification.

A spreadsheet showing the impact of these changes on our historical results can be downloaded HERE

On September 1, 2013 CP updated its definitions for terminal dwell and train speed to better reflect how operational performance is tracked and measured by management.  As a result of these updates, CP’s performance measures are no longer comparable to the metrics reported by other Class 1 railroads on the AAR’s Railroad Performance Measures website.

Train Speed

Terminal Dwell