MarketsFarm — After recent heavy rains forced Canadian National Railway to close its Kamloops-to-Vancouver corridor for a second time, the railway reopened its critical line to Canada’s busiest port on Sunday.
CN spokesperson Jonathan Abecassis said the corridor was initially closed a second time during the most recent spell of heavy rains in southwestern British Columbia as a safety precaution. Washouts were discovered afterward and repaired, with crews still monitoring the corridor.
With that stretch of rail being out of service twice over the last month, CN redirected a portion of its trains elsewhere.
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“We were able to divert quite a bit of traffic to Prince Rupert,” Abecassis said, but declined to provide any data as to how many cars went to the more northerly port.
Mark Hemmes, president of Quorum Corp., which monitors rail traffic in Western Canada, stressed the washouts over the last month are the worst he’s seen in 40 years.
“What really made it worse than anything else was the fact that the roads were gone too. It’s going to be a while before they get the roads back,” he said.
A lot of the repairs by CN and Canadian Pacific Railway have been temporary fixes that require the trains to travel slower on their lines, according to Hemmes.
“Both railways have phenomenal engineering groups. For a lot of them it’s a matter of pride,” he added.
Hemmes pointed out that on a percentage or pro-rated basis, grain movement to the West Coast was ahead of the same time last year — although grains moved by container, such as pulses, were already suffering from a lack of available containers.
Sharply reduced crop production this year on the Prairies has produced fewer exports, which in turn has also eased the pressure on transportation system.
Wade Sobkowich of the Western Grain Elevator Association was also complimentary of the repairs by CN and CP following the washouts.
“We have no complaints necessarily about the way the railways have handled it. They’re doing everything they can. We would not be in a position to say they should have done this differently or better,” he said.
Sobkowich added the WGEA is looking forward to when the two railways will be able to resume full service and clear up the current backlog.
— Glen Hallick reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg.
