WINNIPEG (Staff) – Farmers should pay more attention to rail rates than owning hopper cars, according to a transportation analyst at the University of Manitoba Transport Institute.
John Heads told a recent transportation conference car ownership is “irrelevant” in the face of changes to rates. Heads explained railways have shown “impressive improvements in productivity,” gaining nearly three percent per year over the past 30 years.
In fact, Heads said the total freight rate for moving grain over an average distance of 1,652-1,691 kilometres has fallen in the last 10 years. The railways have shared these gains with shippers. But in the soon-to-be-proclaimed Canada Transportation Act, they won’t have to.
“Whatever the rates are is very important because farmers are not getting all the productivity gains after 1998-99, and they’ve got them all at the moment,” Heads said.
