FEBRUARY 15, 2001
NFU COORDINATORS SUPPORT PRAIRIE RAIL PROPOSAL
Ken Sigurdson (NFU Coordinator Manitoba) and Paul Harmon (NFU Coordinator Saskatchewan) today said they are encouraged by a proposal to create a community based prairie rail system and it should be pursued because it can offer significant future benefits to rural communities and farmers.
"For years we have watched the elevator companies and railways pass us by. We are very pleased that Canadian National has agreed to work with workers, farmers and communities to keep the branch lines in service," they said.
The NFU Coordinators were responding to the announcement that CN and the Brotherhood of Maintenance Way Employees have signed a memorandum of understanding which allows the BMWE to lease rail branch lines so our branch line system can be kept in tact. The BMWE said it wants to partner with farmers and their communities to increase current grain traffic and attract other traffic to these railroad branch lines. This enables the creation of a new regional cooperative grain collection system.
"This is just the type of creative thinking needed to increase the power of farmers and rural communities in the marketplace by giving them greater control over rail and grain handling infrastructure," the NFU Coordinators said.
They called on provincial governments to seriously consider the financial savings that will be possible by entering into a joint intermodal infrastructure planning system.
"The amount of trucking has already increased over 800% and is expected to double again in the near future if current trends of elevator destruction and rail branch line abandonment continue. Making greater use of existing rail and grain handling infrastructure offers a huge payback in road cost savings to municipalities and to provinces, savings in energy (transportation) costs and savings to the environment (CO2 emissions)," they said.
They said a cooperative and public partnership may be possible making the best use of both road and rail transport in minimizing total costs for farmers and taxpayers.
"Individual communities and farmers have the best chance to succeed with this overall regional systems approach. For years we have been fighting to keep a rural infrastructure and grain collection system that is disintegrating. We now have found a way to shift the focus, to finding ways to revive the system and increase its use. This integrated system will provide substantial savings which will remain in the communities," they said.
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For more information contact:
Ken Sigurdson (204) 734-3644 or
Paul Harmon (306) 299-4555