A coalition of farmers and railway workers trying to set up a locally controlled grain system is busy drumming up support from affected communities.
At the same time, it’s building up opposition to a rival proposal that would see a short-line railway gain the right to operate over the same lines.
The Prairie Alliance for the Future, or PAFF, wants to lease 1,600 kilometres of Saskatchewan and Manitoba lines from CN Rail and set up a non-profit federation of local co-ops that would operate a regional grain collection, transportation and marketing system.
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PAFF chair Kyle Korneychuk said many of the groups joining the co-op are sending letters to the Canadian Transportation Agency urging it to reject an application by Omnitrax Canada for running rights over much of the same track.
There simply isn’t enough grain traffic on the lines in question to support two railways, he added.
“Our problem is if the running rights application goes ahead and our commercial deal goes ahead, you’re going to have two operators running on the same light density lines.”
If there are 50 cars to be hauled off the lines, and each company has to settle for 25, that won’t make for a viable railway.
Korneychuk said that what farmers want is more control over grain handling and transportation, and they won’t get that if corporate short lines like Omnitrax have the right to run trains on their local branch lines.
“They’re in it for the money,” he said. “We need to make money too, but the money we make we want to return to producers. We don’t need another player taking a margin off.”
The alliance, which includes the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees, a union representing some CN workers, has sold more than 100 memberships at $150 each to local governments and farm and community groups.
The alliance has a May 1 deadline to reach a binding memorandum of understanding with CN outlining a future commercial agreement between the two parties. That agreement is to provide details on lease rates, haulage agreements, interchange agreements and performance criteria covering such things as traffic volumes and safety.
Korneychuk said a draft business plan has been prepared and, while there are a number of issues that will require some negotiation, he’s confident an agreement will be reached.
