SASKATOON – CN Rail spokesperson Jim Feeny said the company has no intention of eliminating the majority of the rail network, contrary to comments by the Saskatchewan premier.
“We don’t see thousands of miles coming out of the prairie network,” Feeny said.
However, he added once federal government regulations are in place, CN plans to abandon about 550 kilometres of light steel rail in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
“If the regulatory framework is in place, we would move to abandon them quickly.”
Saskatchewan premier Roy Romanow told delegates to the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities 90th annual convention last week that about 450 rural communities in Saskatchewan could be erased from the map because the federal government lifted branch line protection in the February budget.
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“It has the medium to long-term potential of remaking the map of the province,” Romanow said.
“This has the potential of having the biggest negative impact to rural Saskatchewan of anything going.”
There are 48 communities along 800 kilometres of light steel line expected to be abandoned at the end of the year.
CP Rail has about 370 kms of light steel line in the Prairies. A review in November will give the company an idea of how many kilometres of the light steel lines will be abandoned, said Axel Conradi, manager of grain marketing.
“The thinking is the light steel/low density lines should be given expedited abandonment procedures,” said Conradi from Winnipeg. The review will determine how many more kilometres of other rail line will be abandoned.
In Saskatchewan, another 4,800 kms of the branch lines are also eligible for abandonment by the end of December, which would affect 383 cities and hamlets along the lines.
Strike quickly
Romanow said railways will “strike quite quickly for abandonment” of the light steel lines.
He said the federal government’s $1.6 billion one-time Crow Benefit buyout and the $300 million adjustment fund spread over six years is “woefully inadequate” to help farmers and rural towns deal with the adjustment.
“This is an unfair blow to Western Canada.”
SARM president Sinclair Harrison said the cost of abandoning rail lines may be efficient for the rail companies, but it just passes the cost to the municipalities.
“Rural municipal roads are experiencing increased traffic flows on many roads that were just not constructed to accommodate high volume truck traffic,” said Harrison.
“People clearly did not understand that there is a cost by putting significant volumes of grain on the road system.”
Romanow said government and farmers will work with federal authorities and “figure out ways and means so the change is not traumatic and not immediately detrimental.”
