A group of farmers plans to apply for producer cars to force CN Rail to resume service on their local rail line southeast of Regina.
Ron Gleim, Saskatchewan chair of the Western Rail Coalition, said the applications will be made soon, depending on how busy farmers are with harvest.
The group hopes that applying for the cars will bring to a head their simmering dispute with the railway over lack of service on the Lewvan subdivision, which runs from Regina to near the United States border.
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“If service is not provided, then we can complain to the Canadian Transportation Agency, which can order CN to provide service,” Gleim said.
CN spokesperson Jim Feeny said the railway’s ability to provide producer cars will depend on where they are to be spotted.
“We would have to inspect the line and maybe do some engineering work to make sure we can safely service the line,” he said.
The Lewvan line has never been proposed for discontinuance, but according to the coalition there is no service along most of the 160 kilometre line.
The rail coalition has written to federal transport minister David Collenette, asking him to examine the situation. It accuses CN of paving over some rail crossings and tearing up track.
Feeny denied that.
“If anybody has done that, it has not been CN and it has not been with our permission,” he said, adding the railway has been providing service to two elevators near Regina and storing cars on the southern end of the line.
One thing both sides agree on is that the Lewvan line has great potential because of its direct link to the U.S. rail system. The coalition says that’s why CN, which serves the U.S. through a link south of Winnipeg, hasn’t offered the line for sale through the abandonment process.
“CN will bury that line before they’ll ever sell it to anyone else,” said Gleim, adding that if it ever was offered for sale, there would be lots of interest.
Feeny acknowledged that the line isn’t being “fully exploited,” which he attributed to regulatory restrictions on north/south movement.
Meanwhile, a local group trying to buy CN’s Imperial subdivision southeast of Saskatoon said the railway should be forced to resume service on the line until the transport agency has ruled on its complaint that CN has been negotiating in bad faith.
“It is unfair for CN to simply assume service is no longer necessary and shut down the track while the CTA rules on our complaint,” said Brent McLellan, chair of the Long Lake Road and Rail Committee.
CN denies it has negotiated in bad faith, saying the two sides were unable to negotiate a deal.
Feeny said local governments showed no interest in buying the line, which has now been officially abandoned by CN.
“We have no intention of resuming service,” he said.
