28 February 2011

Canadian Pacific Slammed
Over Grain Car Delivery

Winnipeg Manitoba - The Western Grain Elevator Association says Canadian Pacific Railway is continuing to fall down in providing railcars to transport grain.
 
In a statement released Monday, executive director Wade Sobkowich said they thought things would improve with the imminent release of the federal Rail Freight Service Review Panel's final report.
 
But the group says that hasn't happened.
 
Sobkowich said CPR has accepted only 65 percent of the car orders it received and provided only 30 percent on time and the performance is the worst anyone in the association can remember.
 
The association asked the review panel for legislation that would set standards of performance and impose penalties to be paid to shippers if those levels were not met.
 
"If the railways are genuine in their intent to provide adequate service, then the legislative provisions we are proposing will never be used. They would only come into effect if the railway fails to perform," said Sobkowich.
 
The federal government appointed the panel in 2009 and it submitted its interim report last October. Its final report should be released by the minister soon.
 
In its interim report the review panel urged the government to draft legislation but to hold it back until 2013 to see if the railways can fix things on their own.
 
The panel also suggested a trigger be put in place that would see the rules become law if the railways have not improved their performance.
 
Sobkowich said CPR's last quarterly report shows an increase in service to all sectors except grain. The railway booked 17.5 percent fewer grain cars in a 12-week period of 2010 than in the same quarter in 2009, which meant about $272 million worth of grain didn't get moved.
 
"A sustainable solution of this nature cannot be negotiated on a commercial basis in the absence of underlying legislation, given the imbalance in negotiating power between shippers and railways," he said.