A dispute over the level of service that Canadian National Railway provides to small shippers has gone to mediation.
Six prairie grain shippers filed a complaint with the Canadian Transportation Agency two weeks ago, alleging CN has failed to abide by a CTA decision handed down in July.
That ruling ordered the railway to change its car allocation procedures so as not to disadvantage smaller companies.
CN denies the shippers’ allegations, maintaining it has gone beyond the CTA’s directives in an effort to assist small shippers.
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However, it did agree not to go ahead with awarding rail cars for 2007-08 until the complaint has been dealt with.
Last week, CN also agreed to a request from the shippers that the two sides try to resolve the dispute through mediation rather than litigation.
“We are pleased CN has agreed to mediation and to postpone the awarding of rail cars under the advance car book programs,” said CWB spokesperson Maureen Fitzhenry, adding mediation will be much quicker and less costly than litigation.
The CWB is one of the complainants, along with North East Terminal, North West Terminal, Providence Grain Group, Parrish and Heimbecker and Paterson Globalfoods.
The mediation process was to begin in Winnipeg Sept. 19 and was not expected to last more than a few days. The mediators will be from the CTA.
All the parties involved agreed not to discuss the case while mediation is underway.
At the heart of the dispute was CN’s plan to eliminate 50 car advance bookings and offer 100 car trains, which had to be booked for 42 consecutive weeks.
That prompted a level of service of complaint from Great Northern Grain, supported by a number of grain shippers, farm groups, government and the CWB, who said that would freeze small shippers out of the advance booking program and force them to rely on the unpredictable weekly general car allocation.
The CTA upheld the complaint and in July ordered CN to change its car allocation procedures to deal with the issues raised by the small shippers.
Whether the railway has done so is the subject of the latest complaint.
