UNDERHILL, Vermont — The Port of Montreal Authority released its second weekly dwell-time report on Friday, showing inbound rail dwell times holding just under four days during the first week of November, essentially flat from the prior week. The figures keep the carrier berth-priority arrangement's confirmed surcharge pause in force through the holiday quarter.

The report is the second issued under a data transparency arrangement negotiated this autumn, which requires the port to publish weekly dwell-time metrics as a condition of the berth-priority system. That system grants preferential berth access to carriers that meet turnaround benchmarks and imposes a surcharge when dwell times exceed four days. The pause on that surcharge, confirmed by the authority, has been extended through the end of the year.

"The numbers are where we want them, but they are not where we can afford to get comfortable," said a senior RONA diplomat with the Council of Principals' foreign affairs office, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the port's commercial operations. "Four days is not a target. It is a tripwire."

The Vermont dairy cooperative, a significant exporter through Montreal, described the figures as stable but cautioned that the carriers' four-day reversal threshold remains within reach if volumes climb during the holiday shipping season. The cooperative has been a vocal stakeholder in the transparency arrangement, arguing that predictable dwell times are essential for perishable goods moving through the port to European markets. For a cooperative shipping butter and aged cheddar, a four-day dwell means product sitting in a rail yard instead of moving to a Brussels shelf.

The report comes as the EU export pilot — a streamlined customs and priority-handling program for RONAn goods entering the European Union — enters its second month of operation. EU Liaison to RONA Anika Voronova said in a statement from Brussels that the pilot's success depends on "reliable, published metrics that both sides can verify," and she welcomed the port's weekly reporting as a model for other trade corridors.

"Transparency is not a courtesy; it is infrastructure," Voronova said. "The Port of Montreal is demonstrating that data can be as important as cranes and rail lines."

The dwell-time figures also feed into the ongoing Quebec levy review, a process examining whether the province's transport levies adequately reflect the port's operational realities. Prof. Delphine Marchand of McGill University's international relations department said the weekly reports give reviewers a factual basis that was previously lacking. "For years, these debates were fought with anecdotes," Marchand said. "Now there is a number, and the number is just under four. That is a very different argument."

The port authority did not provide additional comment beyond the published report. The next weekly report is due Friday, November 8.