The Saskatchewan Shortline Railway Association hopes Ottawa’s decision to remove mandatory grain hauling requirements will improve rail service for small shippers.
However, it conceded recently that the damage already caused to short-line railways will take years to correct.
“I think we’re resolved to the idea that service (from Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway) to small shippers and short-line railways can’t get any worse, it can only get better,” said Con Johnson, an association director and vice-chair of Great Western Railway in southwestern Saskatchewan.
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“Unfortunately, the damage has already been done.… When grain marketing changes were introduced, we had so many business opportunities as short lines, but we’ve since lost a lot of those opportunities and our reputation as reliable shippers and timely shippers is going to take years to get back.”
Association members met in Regina last month to discuss service issues during their annual general meeting.
Short-line railways depend on Canada’s Class 1 railway carriers — CN and CP — to deliver cars. However, weekly grain targets implemented by Ottawa in early 2014 reduced the number of cars delivered to small shippers and short line companies.
Johnson said some association members who attended the March meeting had not received a train in six weeks.
Other short lines were promised cars but had no idea how many would be delivered or what day of the week they would be arriving.
“The weekly mandates did force the railways to accomplish something. They did move some grain, so I guess we have to acknowledge that,” Johnson said.
“As short lines, though, the service that we received didn’t get any better and it probably got steadily worse.”
“There’s still absolutely zero ability to plan anything. We’re still shipping weeks and weeks behind schedule. We have November contracts out there that we’re still trying to fill.”
Johnson said lack of rail car deliveries in southwestern Saskatchewan has caused a significant increase in the amount of grain being moved south by road.
“Just at our little port at Climax, Sask., … the estimate that they gave me was 18 to 28 trucks a day going south, and that’s just at one port,” he said. “Our road system was barely built for cars, so this traffic is just tearing our roads up. ”
