Last winter's extremely cold temperatures were a wake-up call for the railways. The freezing conditions were a major contributor to the grain backlog that occurred.

Paul Miller, an adjunct professor with the Canadian Rail Research Laboratory at the University of Alberta, says there's no quick fix to the technological problems that occur when the temperature starts to drop.

"We're not going to get rubber rails; we're not going to get rubber wheels on freight cars," he commented. "Steel has certain fundamental properties that are affected in very cold weather. We can improve it; they have been improved. We can mitigate it through detection technologies, grinding, profiling, rail flaw detection...on the freight cars but we're not going to make it completely go away."

Miller notes that it's around minus 25 degrees Celsius when most of the problems start to occur with the steel and air brakes.

Miller suggests the real solution is to improve supply chain collaboration and innovation, adding the railways must also communicate better with the rest of the supply chain.