Manitoba’s general farm group wants a moratorium on rail line abandonment, fearing the loss of more branch lines in the province could spell lost opportunities for rural communities.
Keystone Agricultural Producers worries more branch lines will be abandoned due to the high value of salvaged steel.
However, the farm group believes those rail lines could prove important in the development of value-added ventures anticipated for the near future.
“With the renewable fuels and other things that are coming on stream, maybe we’d better not be tearing up that steel,” said KAP vice-president Robert McLean. “Once it’s gone, you’ll never replace it.”
Read Also
Carberry field day looks for agriculture solutions
Manitoba farmers explored research solutions for resilient crops, perpetual agronomic issues and new kinds of agricultural products at a field day at the Manitoba Crop Diversification Centre in Carberry on Aug. 6.
Discussion wanted
KAP hopes the province will establish a moratorium on rail line abandonment until the issue can be discussed with concerned parties, including rural and farming communities.
Among other things, KAP wants the regulations for branch line abandonment reviewed. There are concerns within the farm group that regulations allow the process of abandonment to move ahead too quickly.
“We just can’t pull up these lines until we sit down and talk it over,” said McLean, who discussed the issue at the KAP general council meeting in Brandon earlier this month.
Among the most prominent branch lines in Manitoba is one that runs from Morris to Mariapolis. That line, operated as Southern Manitoba Railway, was listed for sale this spring.
Someone could purchase that stretch of track and continue to operate it as a short line, but that does not appear certain.
Delmar Commodities owns three storage facilities along the Southern Manitoba Railway line, including an elevator that it moved from La Riviere, Man., to Somerset, Man.
The relocation and upgrading of that elevator cost almost $1.5 million.
Delmar Commodities handles close to 300,000 tonnes of grain and other commodities per year. President Martin Harder said the loss of the rail line would be devastating, particularly for the rural communities that it serves.
“It shouldn’t take an awful lot of thought to say that it’s worth keeping,” said Harder, noting that roads in the province already are in desperate condition and the further loss of branch lines would add to that problem.
Harder said he knows at least one company has shown interest in buying and continuing rail service on the line between Morris and Mariapolis. However, he would not disclose the name of that company.
