The Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association has proposed ten recommendations to improve rail service in western Canada. The recommendations are contained in the Wheat Grower submission to the Rail Freight Service Review Panel.
“The rail service review represents an excellent opportunity to introduce new measures to improve railway service performance,” says Kevin Bender, President of the Wheat Growers. “Bringing in measures to improve accountability in rail service will help ensure grain cars are provided to shippers and delivered to customers on a more timely basis.”
In its submission the Wheat Growers propose the introduction of reciprocal penalties, whereby shippers could assess penalties against the railways if they failed to spot, pick-up or deliver cars on a timely basis. The penalties would balance those the railways now assess shippers for the late loading or unloading of railcars.
In an effort to improve system capacity, the Wheat Growers propose the introduction of a two-tier revenue cap, allowing the railways to earn greater revenues during the peak shipping period, offset by lower revenues during slack periods. The Wheat Growers believe that making this change would add transportation capacity and allow more sales to be made in the key October to December shipping window.
The Wheat Growers also called for a review of the railway revenue cap, so that productivity gains generated by the railways over the past 18 years are better shared with shippers and farmers. The Wheat Growers also recommended railway service be deemed an essential service, at least within western Canada, so that costly strikes and lockouts are avoided.
“Improvements to rail service are long overdue,” says Bender. “Bringing in greater accountability will reduce costs for shippers and allow our industry to take better advantage of sale opportunities. Ultimately, it will improve returns to farmers.”
