STAFF – More grain should move through the Hudson Bay port of Churchill now that a short-line railway owns the track leading to the port, according to the president of the port’s marketing agency.
“CN just did not have its heart in operating those northern lines,” said Terry Duguid.
High expectations
“Now we’re going to have some folks on the scene who I think are going to be very aggressive, locally responsive, and who are really going to want to market and promote the line with us.”
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Dwight Johnson, president of OmniTrax, told reporters short lines can make ends meet where major railways cannot.
“There is a formula for success if you work with the community leaders, you work with the industries and you work with your connecting railroads as well as with government,” he said.
Paul Tellier, president of CN Rail, said the sale was thanks to support from the federal and Manitoba governments.
Tellier stressed the governments have to play a role in the sale of the port, taxation for the new short line and economic development in the North.
CN’s deal with OmniTrax should be complete by May 1997. No details will be disclosed because of confidentiality agreements.
OmniTrax manages 11 short lines in the United States.
Its parent company is Broe Companies Inc.
When asked whether OmniTrax plans to upgrade the lines making up the network in northern Manitoba, Johnson said, “When we made the determination and the decision to become operators, we therefore made the decision to commit capital.”
Spending needed
A task force on Churchill in 1995 identified the harbor, grain elevator and track need a total of $146 million in capital over 20 years.
The task force report said one million tonnes of grain would have to be moved through the port each year for the next 10 years to cover operating costs and capital improvements, most of it canola and special crops.
In the 1996 shipping season 305,000 tonnes of grain moved through the port, none of it canola or special crops.
