28 September 2010

The Future of Gravelbourg Hodgeville Rail

Gravelbourg Saskatchewan - Canadian Pacific Rail (CPR) published an announcement at the end of August that the Gravelbourg Hodgeville rail subdivision is now up for sale or discontinuance. The notice said "parties interested in acquiring this railway line for the purpose of continuing a railway operation must make their interests known in writing by 1 Nov 2010".
 
The Gravelbourg Hodgeville Rail (GHR) Committee met on 2 Sep 2010 and decided to submit an expression of interest to CPR to purchase the Gravelbourg Rail Subdivision. The Gravelbourg Subdivision extends from Mossbank to Hodgeville and is a total of 53.9 miles.
 
The committee has six months starting November to negotiate an agreement with CP regarding the value of the line. A short committee will be put in place to begin negotiations on the rail value which includes the rail, rail bed, and sidings. If the parties cannot come to an agreement on value within this period of time GHR can refer the matter of the line valuation to the Canadian Transportation Agency so that they can set a value after hearing from the parties and doing their own evaluation.
 
Producer car numbers are crucial to the future success of this enterprise. According to the business plan a minimum of 550 cars must be loaded each year to make the line viable. To determine local interest, producer car surveys were distributed at community meetings and through the mail as flyers. To date 47 producers have responded for a minimum of 470 cars and a maximum of 530 cars per year. The committee feels that this is a great initial response and is still looking for producers who might be interested or who didn't respond to the survey.
 
The clock is ticking and the committee is moving forward. Several more community meetings will be hosted in Shamrock and Coderre in the coming weeks. Additionally, the committee decided to convert the GHR from a Not-for-Profit Corporation to a Business Corporation so that seed capital can be raised for the project.
 
To further assist with this project, the committee hired Martin Woolridge as a consultant to help with identifying outside sources of funding for this project and to further assist the committee with negotiations. Woolridge was part of the committee that negotiated the purchase of Last Mountain Railway from CNR between Davidson and Regina.
 
If you are interested in being part of the Board, willing to help the committee raise seed capital, or would like a copy of the producer car survey please contact Shelley Hirstwood at 648-3301 ext 4 or gravelbourg.edo@sasktel.net. Watch for future articles that will address the progress of the committee and other functional items such as setting up producer car loading facilities.
 
Shelley Hirstwood.