Transport 2000 Canada Hotline

23 March 2001

Summary

This is the Transport 2000 Canada Hotline for 23 March 2001, Darrell Richards reporting.

1 - Coop Railway Proposal

On January 25, 2001, the Brotherhood of Maintenance Way Employees (BMWE) signed a memorandum of understanding with Canadian National Railway to enable BMWE to develop a regional grain collection system in cooperation with farmers and communities.

BMWE is part of a western community/farmer network called the Prairie Alliance for the Future (PAFF). The system would initially involve leasing 1,600 kilometres of CNR line in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. More lines may be transferred to the new cooperative entity in the future. The Canadian Pacific Railway has also expressed interest in this new concept.

Western farmers have lost control and ownership of the grain marketing, handling and transportation systems. Elevators and branch lines are closing, thereby transferring costs to farmers and roads. Foreign transnational companies have increased their market power by taking over or integrating with cooperative elevator companies, building inland terminals, and setting the conditions for incremental elimination of the Canadian Wheat Board.

The private sector short line railway model has not been entirely successful for grain dependent branch lines. Most of the recent private short line trackage on the prairies has been created in northern areas where there are non-grain commodities.

The future of grain dependent private short lines is in question. For example, the first short line set up in central Alberta has had to abandon much of its trackage because the elevators closed. A private regional railway system focused on railways alone will fail.

There is no future for branch lines -- unless a system approach is used to attract grain to those lines.

The PAFF plan for a vertically integrated regional grain system can attract gra in to keep branch lines in operation. By dealing with branch lines, grain collection and grain marketing in a vertically integrated system approach, it can secure a supply of grain for the branch lines. Moreover, this would be compatible with international trade rules.

2 - CN Proposes Shipper Rebate

CN President Paul Tellier has proposed that governments rebate railway fuel taxes not to the railways but to shippers. This would level the playing field with trucks that use public roads by giving shippers an added incentive to shift freight from road to rail.

CN estimates the annual value of the tax credit at $160 million, but it would save taxpayers about $500 million a year in road construction and maintenance costs.

3 - Western Transport 2000 Meeting

John Bakker, former President of Transport 2000 Alberta, travelled to Moose Jaw to participate at the Western Canada Transport 2000 meeting. John also publishes the impressive western newsletter in colour to boot.

4 - NAFTA Report Promotes Trucking

A report for the NAFTA environmental commission gave a public relations boost to the trucking industry last week when it said that trucks will be cleaner than trains by the year 2020, in terms of nitrogen oxides and particulates. But it also said that rail will be ten times less polluting in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.

Critics have said that the projection of cleaner trucks is based on flawed assumptions. The report assumes that truck NOX and particulate emission reductions will improve about 900 per cent faster than for rail. This assumes there will be no technology transfer and that governments will not change rail standards between 2005 and 2020. It also assumes that truck traffic on trade highways such as the 401 can double or even quadruple without increasing emissions from traffic slowed in added congestion.

Finally...

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