KENOSEE LAKE, Sask. – Ed Zsombor envisions a short line rail network in Saskatchewan that rivals its main line counterparts.
The province’s rail services director told National Farmers Union members that Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Railways together operate 3,550 kilometres of track in Saskatchewan.
“There are 980 miles (1,580 km) of short line operating now,” he said at the NFU’s regional convention. “I’m hoping we would have a collection and distribution system roughly equal to the main line, eventually.”
Short line railways have filled in a system that used to be serviced by about 9,660 km of branch lines. By 1996, 4,830 km had been abandoned or torn out as the railways moved to consolidate their systems.
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Zsombor said another 1,480 km are on the current abandonment list, split nearly equally by the CPR and CN.
He and others in his department are working with about 10 communities and groups that are considering short line rail service.
“Some of those groups aren’t even on the (abandonment) plan,” he said.
However, they see what could happen and want to plan now.
He said these groups are forming throughout the province, except in the northwest.
NFU member Glenn Tait, who once chaired the North West Rail Car Co-operative, said 10 people drove around the region several years ago and tried to get people to join, but nobody would.
He said the situation wasn’t helped by two years of drought. With little grain to move, rail cars weren’t an issue and farmers who did have grain got used to hauling it in trucks.
“There was no interest whatsoever,” Tait said.
Large grain companies sometimes find themselves in a similar position. When CPR moved to abandon the line through Fife Lake and leave Pioneer without rail cars, the company simply began trucking the grain, Zsombor said.
Now that the Fife Lake short line is operating, the company is loading cars again.
Zsombor said short line viability is determined by the number of cars moved per owned mile. Revenue is adequate at 40 or more cars but only marginally profitable at 10 to 20 cars.
“Local support is key,” he said. “You need carloads.”
He also said that where short lines were once viewed by main lines as annoyances, they have now become partners. They are generating local traffic better than the main lines could and about 25 percent of national freight is collected by short lines for transfer to main lines.
Among the challenges for short lines are raising the initial equity to purchase the track, generating traffic, recapitalization and the future of the Canadian Wheat Board.
The province has, through its Transportation for Economic Advantage document, recognized that some sort of program will have to be developed to help short lines recapitalize, Zsombor said.
NFU members pointed out that the wheat board’s future will affect producer car traffic on short lines. About 7,500 producer cars are loaded in Saskatchewan each year, nearly all of them with board grain and many of them originating on short lines.
Former NFU president Nettie Wiebe said no one should underestimate the dislocation and shift in grain transportation that will occur if the board is lost.
The NFU has recommended that Saskatchewan exercise its right to purchase abandoned lines and then lease them to short lines. The theory is that communities or organizations could more easily operate short lines if they didn’t have to worry about raising capital.
