Statistics Canada studies show that shipping bulk commodities by truck is 15 times more energy intensive than by rail, according to an economics professor from Brandon University.
“That means you use 15 times less energy per tonne per kilometre of stuff shipped,” Joe Dolecki said.
He also noted that a Brookings Institute study looking at future energy prices found that oil reaching $300 per barrel was within the realm of possibility in just a few years.
Reducing dependency on trucking could help alleviate the economic pain from increased energy costs, the study showed.
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“So the argument for the preservation of lines, and an increased reliance on short lines, can find support in that because it’s a lot more cost effective,” Dolecki said.
It could be argued, he added, that rail companies, especially Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Railway, to which the government granted enormous concessions in the form of land, mineral rights and tax revenues to finance construction during prairie settlement, should not be allowed to walk away from their obligations to provide effective rail service.
“They should have a sufficient amount of revenue from those assets to maintain it in perpetuity,” said Dolecki, who added the lack of political will prevents a moratorium on further branch line abandonment.
In purely economic terms, the rail companies refer to such decisions as “streamlining” their operations, he said, but it’s a classic example of the corporate strategy of privatizing profits by dumping costs on the public.
“They get the product anyway. If there’s no rail line, someone has to drive it to them anyway. The cost then falls on the farmer,” he said.
“It makes sense for them, but it’s a cost that is shifted onto the local communities and producers that consequently compromises their ability to survive.”
