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“When unions strike, grain elevators fill up quickly and farmers are not able to deliver grain.” – Gunter Jochum.
News

Grain Growers, Wheat Growers call for action to avoid rail strike

Industry concerned that disrupting grain flow will hit not only at farmers, but Canada’s trade reputation

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Farm groups sounded the alarm after workers at both of Canada’s major railways voted to strike. “A rail strike now is the last thing we need. We’re at a critical point in the seeding season, and any delay in shipping can directly affect our bottom line and cause substantial economic losses across the agricultural sector,”
Rail cars in Vancouver. (Photo courtesy/copyright Canadian National Railway)

Rail strike looms as CN, CPKC workers take action to a vote

Any labour disruption could be weeks away, but the grain sector is still wary

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Members of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) are in the middle of a strike vote. The vote comes after three collective agreements, covering CN and CPKC engineers and conductors as well as rail traffic controllers at CPCK, expired December 31.
Given their large size, trains often appear to be farther away and travelling much slower than they actually are. Don’t be fooled. It takes the equivalent length of 18 football fields for the average freight train to come to a stop.
News

Farm safety includes being rail safe

In a contest between big farm equipment and a train, the train still wins

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With nearly 45,000 kilometres of active railway tracks and roughly 40,000 railway crossings from coast to coast, many Canadians encounter trains daily. That’s especially true in rural areas, where many farms are located near railway tracks. In 2022, Canada’s incidents between trains and vehicles or people totalled 232. Of those, 66 people died and 43
At the end of December, the railways had about 35 per cent of the crop, which is low, Quorum Corp president Mark Hemmes admitted. He attributed that to price increases from both railways between August and October last year.
News

Railways weather winter woes

Grain shipments on track despite January cold blast

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At the midway point of the 2023–24 transportation year, grain shipments are moving at a good clip. “In the last 12–18 months, we’ve seen some really good performance from both of the railroads,” said Mark Hemmes, president of Quorum Corporation, Canada’s grain monitor, at the Feb. 15 CropConnect conference in Winnipeg. “The exception was the
“What those asking for this policy want is a cheaper rate. It is not about improving service. Nor will it improve competitiveness. Extended interswitching will do the exact opposite. The only winners with extended regulated interswitching are U.S. railways.” – Marc Brazeau, Railway Association of Canada.
News

Interswitching resurgence puts railways, grain industries on collision course

Both sides say a pilot to test a bigger interswitching radius is a bad move, but for opposite reasons and to opposite effect

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Recent federal legislation has raised the stakes in a decade-long battle between the railways and Canadian grain shippers. The battle is over the interswitching radius. Interswitching is a regulation to ensure that shippers located where only a single railway operates can access points that are not served by that railway. The regulation kicks in when
A decade of interswitching debate
News

A decade of interswitching debate

Rail bottlenecks, federal reports and renewed life for extended interswitching

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Interswitching has been regulated since 1904 in Canada but in 2013 an exceptional harvest led to record-breaking grain production in Western Canada. The increased supply, combined with challenging weather conditions, overwhelmed the railways and led to significant delays in moving grain to export terminals. In 2014, the Fair Rail for Grain Farmers Act reached Parliament
(Photo courtesy Canola Council of Canada)
Crops

Preview: Railways, grain shippers at loggerheads over interswitching

Pilot to test expanded radius deemed unnecessary by both sides

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Recent legislation has raised the stakes in a decade-long battle between the railways and Canadian grain shippers over the interswitching radius. Interswitching refers to a regulation to ensure shippers located where only a single railway operates can access points that are not served by that railway. The issue is especially concerning for Canadian grain shippers
(Orchidpoet/iStock/Getty Images)
Crops

Rail interswitching expansion pilot clears Parliament

Grain handlers to press for plan to be made permanent

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Last week’s passage of the 2023 federal budget starts a 90-day countdown toward an 18-month test of expanded interswitching on railways in the three Prairie provinces. Bill C-47, the government’s budget implementation bill — which was first read April 20 in the House of Commons and got third reading in the Senate and royal assent

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