ESTON, Sask. (Staff) – Despite record grain handlings and a promise to be more efficient, CN Rail officials faced some hard questions from a small crowd gathered in Eston recently.
The future of branch lines and deregulation generated much debate from farmers attending the meeting in the west-central Saskatchewan farming community.
Jim Feeny, a spokesperson for CN, told farmers at the start of the meeting that, “We are not going to come out of this meeting in total agreement.”
He was right.
Company officials told the group that scheduled rail traffic, less hub congestion, more efficient use of labor, localizing rail crews and deregulation are needed to improve the system.
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The process would be driven by competition with CP Rail, trucking, Burlington Northern railway in the northern U.S., and the conversion of land to livestock production, said company officials.
Eston is located on a branch line not slated for abandonment, but farmers there are still concerned.
While most farmers agreed with much of CN officials told them, many said they are worried that CN will eventually eliminate their line because the company can do it without losing market share.
The line has some newer grain facilities and is in a high grain production area, but there are no high throughput structures.
Truck grain
As well, the Eston line doesn’t have a loading spot large enough to load 25 cars at once, let alone 100 cars, which is the size of unit train loadings CN is trying to encourage.
If the line was abandoned, producers in that area would have to truck grain an average of 35 kilometres.
The area is not served by another rail company and it is north of the South Saskatchewan River separating it from both CP rail lines and the U.S.
Conversion to livestock costs a lot of money and means an entirely different way of life for grain producers, say the farmers. They say it is more likely they will have to haul the grain further.
“It’s just another way of closing this line. They kill us with kindness,” said Brian Crowhurst, an Eston-area farmer.
“As long as our net revenue is higher than our costs, we will be there,” said Feeny.
The railway will entertain suggestions of terminal construction and will negotiate service guarantees with those types of facilities, said John Sutherland of CN.
“It is unfortunate but some farmers are going to have to get used to hauling further,” he said.
