WINNIPEG (Staff) — The Grain Transportation Agency has reduced the number of rail cars it is allocating to U.S. destinations in an effort to improve car turnaround times to Canadian ports.
Bruce McFayden, co-ordinator of car allocations for the GTA, said the agency wants to maximize the efficiency of the system. Reducing the number of cars sent into the U.S., where turnaround times are twice as long, was seen as one way to accomplish that.
Shippers with U.S. deliveries still have the option of adjusting their car allocations to Canadian ports to accommodate their U.S. commitments, McFayden said.
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Under the Western Grain Transportation Act, the railways are required to come within 95 percent of their unload targets at Canadian ports, or risk losing a portion of their subsidies.
The act doesn’t deal with U.S. movement. But the increase in U.S. exports this year could play a role in whether the railways are penalized for not meeting their Canadian port unload targets.
Peter Thomson, administrator of the GTA, said cars required for non-WGTA movement of commodities into the U.S. used to be allocated off the top of the weekly car allocations because the volumes moved were so small. The railways and shipping companies reach contractual agreements to arrange the shipping, and then go through the GTA for a car allocation.
When the volume of U.S. movement skyrocketed last fall, it resulted in a large proportion of Canada’s 23,000 rail car fleet being tied up on U.S. cycles.
“That large turnaround time was probably the major factor reducing our total movement,” Thomson said.
