Grain car unloads were nearly 50 percent less than targeted at the northern British Columbia port of Prince Rupert last week, and CN is absolving itself of any blame.
“Over the past eight to 10 months the railways have taken a lot of criticism when targets have not been met,” said Jim Feeny, of CN Rail.
“It is misleading to say the railways are entirely at fault and here’s an example of where the targets are not being met but there’s nothing we can do about it.”
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The jam offered the railway a chance to shift the focus from last winter’s grain transportation crisis. The Canadian Wheat Board handles most grain shipments sent through Prince Rupert.
Only 625 cars were unloaded at the port during the fourth crop week, compared to the 1,200-car target, Feeny said. The company had 343 cars at the port and another 1,554 en route.
The problem lies in co-ordinating ship arrival with grain car arrival. A vessel cleared the port this week, and Feeny said another wasn’t scheduled to dock until Sept. 10.
The wheat board doesn’t dispute the claims, but said the problem is a rare occurrence and should be cleared up in less than two weeks.
“There’s a seven to 10-day window when the vessels can arrive so there can be a bit of juggling that goes on,” said wheat board communications officer Rhea Yates.
Two 50,000-tonne vessels are expected to arrive in Prince Rupert next week, she said.
The board exceeded unload targets throughout most of the summer with enough ships to handle the overflow, Yates said.
Keeping grain moving
“In hindsight maybe we should have refused these extra cars when we were offered them, but that’s not great for the industry which wants to keep everything moving.
“The hazard with going the other way and saying to the railways we don’t need the cars, park them, is that we might have a situation of complaints that we weren’t using all of the cars offered to us.”
Last week’s backup highlights the need for better co-ordination of vessel arrival with grain shipments out of Canada.
But by the time that process kicks in, the railway’s job is done, Feeny said.
“There’s just nothing we can do. The cars will continue to back up,” he said, adding “it has been a continual issue in the transportation industry that you don’t like to use rail cars for storage.”
The situation at Vancouver is not as desperate, CN said. Grain car unloads totaled 1,254 cars, just over the 1,200 target.
