Canadian Pacific Railway will spend $20 million in the next five years, over and above its routine maintenance program, to repair its fleet of 6,300 government-owned grain hopper cars.
But one critic said the railway wouldn’t have to spend that money if it was maintaining the cars properly.
“They’ve made a big announcement that they’re going to be doing the job they should have been doing anyway, and they expect everyone to applaud,” said Sinclair Harrison, president of the Farmer Rail Car Coalition, which tried unsuccessfully for years to buy the cars.
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CPR’s spending commitment was included in a new operating agreement for the cars signed last week between the rail company and Transport Canada.
The deal comes one year after the federal government announced it would retain ownership of its hopper cars and negotiate new operating agreements with the two national railways that would include a car refurbishment program.
The government is still negotiating with Canadian National Railway.
A CPR spokesperson said the $20 million will be used to replace faulty discharge gates with improved technology and refurbish those that don’t need to be replaced. Routine maintenance of such things as brakes, wheels and air hoses will be funded separately.
“This agreement will ensure a secure hopper supply for farmers and enhance operational fluidity,” said CPR president Fred Green, adding it will also reduce grain losses through spillage.
A company spokesperson said 70 percent of the $20 million will be spent in the first three years of the program.
Car maintenance was a key issue driving the FRCC’s ill-fated effort to buy the 12,000 federal hopper cars.
The coalition’s work revealed that while the railways were receiving $4,329 per car per year for maintenance, they were spending less than $1,700. The FRCC said the work could be done for about $1,500.
The $20 million works out to an average of $635 per car per year, although actual spending will depend on the car’s condition.
Harrison said that while the new spending is good news, it also reflects what a poor job the railway has done in the past.
“They were getting three times what they should have and not doing the job,” he said. “If they had been doing it properly, there wouldn’t be this big backlog of poorly maintained cars.”
He added Transport Canada should monitor CPR’s maintenance spending to ensure it lives up to the agreement.
CPR spokesperson Breanne Feigel declined to respond to Harrison’s comments.
“This isn’t about that,” she said.
“This is about taking control of those 6,300 cars and making technological improvements to them that will meet the shipping needs of our customers.”
