Deteriorating track, derailed cars and leaky gates and hatches are costing prairie farmers millions of dollars, raising concerns among customers and endangering the lives of people and wildlife, says the Canadian Wheat Board.
Appearing recently before a Transport Canada panel reviewing railway safety, CWB director Ian McCreary described a litany of problems faced by the wheat Board and other grain shippers.
The board has seen 74 of its 3,500 farmer-owned rail cars, worth more than $625,000, destroyed in derailments since Aug. 1, 2003.
In the last two crop years, the board has lost 6,100 tonnes of grain, worth $1.55 million, as a result of leakage through the bottom gates of hopper cars in transit or at port. That leaked grain also draws wildlife onto tracks, putting them at risk.
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In the same period, derailments resulted in the loss of 7,600 tonnes of grain worth $2.4 million.
CWB customers in the United States have also raised concerns about contamination of grain in rail cars arriving at destination with improperly sealed or faulty top hatches.
While the railways reimburse the CWB for destroyed cars, and the board and grain companies receive some compensation for leaked grain, the board said farmers have a net loss as a result of the problems.
McCreary told the government panel the railways must be held accountable and required to do a better job of maintaining equipment and infrastructure.
In an interview, McCreary said the railways’ performance suggests they don’t really care about the losses suffered by farmers and shippers.
“This speaks to the degree to which the railways exhibit almost a callous indifference to these kinds of issues,” he said.
“In my view the railways’ market power has led to a certain arrogance that results in poor customer relations and service.”
He said the data show that one rail company is more guilty than the other. Of the 74 cars destroyed by derailments in the last four years, 65 were lost on Canadian National Railway lines and nine on Canadian Pacific Railway lines.
CN spokesperson Jim Feeny rejected the suggestion that the company is unconcerned about safety issues: “Any inference that we don’t take seriously the safety of our people and operations is absolutely, unconditionally false.”
He said the company was “extremely dismayed” at the tone of the CWB’s submission to the panel, adding the railway’s overall safety record has been improving in recent years.
After a spike in main line derailment numbers in 2005, the number of accidents across CN’s system declined by 26 percent in 2006, and is the same pace so far in 2007.
“This is a safe railway and it’s getting safer,” he said, adding that accidents are bound to happen for a variety of reasons, including track, equipment, human error, weather and acts of God.
He said he didn’t know how CN’s safety record compared with CPR’s but added statistics consistently show the two Canadian carriers are the safest major railways in North America.
“You have to look at the overall trends, not an isolated snapshot such as the CWB’s numbers,” he said.
McCreary said leaky hopper bottoms and faulty top hatches can undermine Canada’s reputation among export buyers.
“If the Canadian railways cannot or will not guarantee a safe and secure system for food grain transportation, foreign customers will lose confidence that Canadian grain producers can supply a safe, high quality product,” he said in remarks prepared for delivery to the June 8 panel hearing in Winnipeg.
Feeny said when the railway is informed about hatch and gate problems, it immediately tags the cars to ensure they are quickly repaired and returned to service.
