Watco Advances Its Role at Two Dow Sites in Canada

The turnover of industrial rail functions from third-party contractors to Watco teams has continued at Dow plants, as Watco has taken on some operations at two plants in Canada.

The track maintenance agreements with outside contractors at the Dow plants in Alberta ended April 30. Effective May 1, Watco took over track maintenance in Prentiss and Fort Saskatchewan. The nine people working in track maintenance at both locations have become Watco team members.

“When we took over the operations, we honored existing agreements that were in place with the third-party service providers,” said Glen Jackson, director of Alberta Operations for Division 5. “The third-party contractors were performing the track maintenance work and did a great job, but after evaluating the situation, we decided it would be best for our Watco teams to perform this service directly.” After acquiring the six North American sites from Dow in 2020, Watco made similar transitions at four of the sites located in the Gulf Coast.

Steve Bosse, director of project operations for Alberta, highlighted the customer benefits. “We are optimistic that this will also be to the advantage of our customers. I think the biggest change they’ll see is they’ll have a single point of contact. It’ll streamline communications, and it’ll also help support our efficiencies on-site.”