we can convert, not just the one that we had in our base business case, but maybe some others that we will quantify here in the weeks to come.
Q - David Vernon
So you guys had a relatively unique
perspective on this. You kind of developed Prince Rupert from a fishing port into an intermodal gateway and pathway to China. As you think about the lessons learned from opening up Rupert, how is that experience similar, the same? Like, like what do
you think that experience does for you in terms of your ability to open up these opportunities?
A - Jean-Jacques Ruest
The opportunity is real. Now a recent discussion with Hutchison, their terminal operation in Veracruz and Lázaro Lázaro, namely
theyre not running at capacity. They have a lot of excess capacity available. And their zone of influence right now, is mostly domestic, within Mexico.
Probably by the time you get to Mexico City, after that, the amount of business they go beyond and North Mexico is limited. So theyre really looking for
ways to create a model thats a rail friendly model, big ship, big train model that it could eventually create with us some destination train in market, which today, theyre not participating.
Now they had a challenge here because of the teacher strike, which has really hampered the success of the rail operation of that port. But they want to pick
it up to kind of where they used to be. And really see if in working with CN, we can create a seamless border crossing in Laredo, the same way as we have a seamless border crossing in Toronto, Ontario. Or in Rainier, Minnesota, where really
weve put the infrastructure and the process in place such that a more northern port can actually be even as effective, if not more effective than one of the southern ports.
So definitely, and the same thing in New Orleans and Mobile. Both of them have a big ambition. New Orleans is going to have dredging done by the U.S. Corps of
Engineers . We have a project to build a brand-new state of the art container terminal within the next five years.
In order for this project to be successful financially, they need a railroad. They need a railroad to get them get into places beyond than what truck can do
and the railroad can do that cost effectively. And thats where the zone of influence in New Orleans and Mobile should go all the way to Detroit, Indianapolis, Chicago, Kansas City, St. Louis.
And thats why they see in our proposed merger. In the case of the Mexican port, what they see in our proposed merger is the potential to be able to be a
player of importance in the import of what Texas import from Asia as well as some of the exports of plastics of Texas back to Asia, via those gateways.
So we have partners who are keen to actually work with us to create top line growth for their benefit, our benefit, the benefit of people who import and
export have extra choices in the cluster that we just talked about.