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TORONTO – Facing increased pressure from rail cutting into its business, while the Keystone XL pipeline remains under unending American review, TransCanada Corp. said it is planning to diversify into the oil-by-rail business within months, improving its customers’ ability to connect to its sprawling North American pipeline and storage network.

“We are approaching 1.2 million barrels per day of [rail-] loading capacity — nobody has waited for Keystone XL pipeline to get built,” Russ Girling, president and CEO of the Calgary-based pipeline operator, said Wednesday following a speech to a business audience in Toronto.

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“Depending on our conversations [with customers], we will probably enter the rail business in some form or fashion in the coming months,” Mr. Girling said, noting he expects shippers to move to the pipeline once its gets built, as it offers lower costs.

TransCanada has storage space in Heartland and Hardisty, Alta., near Edmonton, Cushing, Okla. and in Texas, Mr. Girling said, and shippers were keen to connect to those facilities. “There are certain places they want to go where they would like to hook up to facilities that we can build as loading facilities in Alberta, and to get to certain places in North America where we are already positioned,” he said. “So if we can build loading and offloading facilities for them — and we are having conversations with them as we speak.”