BaltACD lenzfamilySo what else is new?? The legislation is often written by those who have less than complete knowledge of the real situation..... The plot thickens.... Charlie Chilliwack, BC and the Thickens plot!
lenzfamilySo what else is new?? The legislation is often written by those who have less than complete knowledge of the real situation..... The plot thickens.... Charlie Chilliwack, BC
The legislation is often written by those who have less than complete knowledge of the real situation.....
The plot thickens....
Charlie
Chilliwack, BC
and the Thickens plot!
Johnny
Hi All
Well....guess what????
An 11th hour tentative negotiated settlement has been reached by the truckers and PMV brokered, of all things by the Gov't of BC.....and this in the Federal sphere of operations, although to be fair, labour is a Provincial matter in many cases. Although the results haven't been announced yet it seems as if the truckers got what they were looking for in terms of rate stabilisation and pay for terminal waiting times.
90 day cooling of still applies, although it looks as if the heat is largely gone unless something really goes sideways unexpectedly, which I personally don't think will likely happen.
I'm guess the PMV will be back full operation early next week if not sooner.
Thickens do plot.....successfully this time, it seems.....a punned oxymoron if ever there was one!!
Since CP is probably short of locos wonder how soon it can get their leased locos back from BNSF? Anyone have any idea how the lease contract was written? Of course each lease set up is different but early terminations may be standard ?
blue streak 1 Since CP is probably short of locos wonder how soon it can get their leased locos back from BNSF? Anyone have any idea how the lease contract was written? Of course each lease set up is different but early terminations may be standard ?
In addition to my company's own power we have been using BNSF, UP, NS, KCS, TFM, CP & CN power with a smattering of DME in addition to genuine leasers CEFX etc. It has the appearance that at the present time, if it is a functioning engine, my carrier doesn't care who owns it - they will use it.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
blue streak 1Since CP is probably short of locos wonder how soon it can get their leased locos back from BNSF?
Sorry for not getting back to you sooner. According to a Canadian railway forum, CP has been bringing a number of units out of hibernation, including examples of SD9043MAC's and SD40-2F's. They have men crawling over the dead lines looking for units that meet two criteria; first, the units are not bumping up against major inspection dates, and secondly, they fall below a certain threshold of parts and labour costs to get them back on the road. As long as we continue to have bad weather up here that threshold is going to keep going up, as they will need more engines to meet the new regulations, and the continued cold weather keeps killing off the engines already out on the road. The company desperately needs to see a break in the weather.
Also, there is an extremely good article on Friday March 28's TRAINS Newswire entitled "Canadian Pacific expresses extreme disappointment with Canadian Government grain legislation". A reader; Steve Callaghan, makes a number of good points as well.
I mentioned on another thread that Grain Elevator companies had been replacing old wood elevators with new concrete ones at a ratio of about 15 to 1. From the article, it seems like EHH is advocating for some additional loading sites. It struck me as odd that a railway would want that. More lines to maintain, more switching.
Bruce
So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.
"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere" CP Rail Public Timetable
"O. S. Irricana"
. . . __ . ______
I should have gotten in on this discussion sooner, but work has been getting in the way. The Crowsnest Pass line sees lots of Soo Line originated grain in season. It is very common for Soo Line grain trains to out number all CP Rail movements between Lethbridge and Dunmore during the US harvest season. Most of the Soo originated grain is destined for the ports of Kalama and Longview, WA further downriver from Portland.
The US coast Guard had to send their biggest Icebreaker to Thunder Bay. The two Countries divide responsibilities for Icebreaking on the Great Lakes with the Canadians responsible for the Eastern part, and the US for the Western part. The only ships moving on Lake Superior right now are being convoyed by the USCGC Mackinaw, as she is the only Icebreaker capable of punching through the windrows were the ice is piled up 8 ft. high.
CN to grain elevators: Stop complaining and start performing Written by William C. Vantuono, Editor-in-Chief - Railway Age CN, fighting the Canadian government’s attempt to impose on grain movements “ill-advised legislation to unfairly punish the rail industry,” on March 31, 2014 reported that it spotted 5,102 hopper cars for loading at Prarie grain elevators in Western Canada during grain-crop Week 34.“This marks the fourth week in a row that CN has delivered well in excess of 4,000 grain cars to Prairie elevators, averaging 4,550 cars per week, or 21% greater than our average March performance for the past decade,” said CN president and CEO Claude Mongeau. “We are continuing to make significant progress toward our goal of transporting close to 5,500 grain cars per week to meet the Canadian government’s Order in Council of March 7, 2014. But CN can only meet its commitment if all other key players in the supply chain are equally held to account for their performance.” Mongeau pointed out that the Canadian government “has yet to regulate grain elevator companies, but has clearly demanded all supply chain players deliver as much grain as possible toward the most efficient and fastest transit-time corridors. This is the most effective way to allow farmers to deliver grain to Prairie elevators and to ensure farmers receive the cash they are owed by grain elevator companies as soon as possible. The faster space is created at country elevators, the more grain, from the most farmers, will be able to move to market.” “One of the biggest root causes of the challenge we face is a lack of coordination across the supply chain and growing pains from new grain marketing strategies following the change in role of the Canadian Wheat Board,” Mongeau said. “Despite the fact that CN will soon have moved more grain than ever before in its history crop-to-date, the benefit of its strong performance does not appear to be flowing to farmers as it did before. The faster we can ramp up tonnage, the quicker we will be able to mitigate the effects of the grain backlog for all Canadian farmers.” Mongeau said that the grain elevator companies should stop complaining and start performing: “Having wrongly singled-out railways and unrealistically called for a near-doubling of railcar capacity since last fall, it is now time for grain elevators companies to step up to the capacity they claim to have, and do so in the corridors that will benefit Canadian farmers the most.” “The recent view expressed by the Western Grain Elevator Association that the railways want to move too many grain loads to the West Coast and Thunder Bay is quite disconcerting,” Mongeau added. The “WGEA has complained all winter about having too many vessels waiting to be loaded on the West Coast, and the highly efficient Thunder Bay Port corridor is about to open for shipping very large quantities of grain to export market.” “CN is committed to maximize throughput using the most efficient corridors available to address the huge grain backlog created by a 100-year crop,” Mongeau said. “In spite of the burden of being the only segment of the supply chain targeted by heavy-handed regulation, the rail industry will do its part to quickly ramp up to move as much tonnage as possible. Unfounded railway bashing by grain stakeholders and the government’s ill-advised legislation to unfairly punish the rail industry are unfortunately about to set Canada’s grain handling system backward. We steadfastly believe that ensuring commercial alignment and encouraging supply chain collaboration are much better ways to build a stronger transportation infrastructure to the benefit of Canadian farmers.”
CN, fighting the Canadian government’s attempt to impose on grain movements “ill-advised legislation to unfairly punish the rail industry,” on March 31, 2014 reported that it spotted 5,102 hopper cars for loading at Prarie grain elevators in Western Canada during grain-crop Week 34.“This marks the fourth week in a row that CN has delivered well in excess of 4,000 grain cars to Prairie elevators, averaging 4,550 cars per week, or 21% greater than our average March performance for the past decade,” said CN president and CEO Claude Mongeau. “We are continuing to make significant progress toward our goal of transporting close to 5,500 grain cars per week to meet the Canadian government’s Order in Council of March 7, 2014. But CN can only meet its commitment if all other key players in the supply chain are equally held to account for their performance.”
Mongeau pointed out that the Canadian government “has yet to regulate grain elevator companies, but has clearly demanded all supply chain players deliver as much grain as possible toward the most efficient and fastest transit-time corridors. This is the most effective way to allow farmers to deliver grain to Prairie elevators and to ensure farmers receive the cash they are owed by grain elevator companies as soon as possible. The faster space is created at country elevators, the more grain, from the most farmers, will be able to move to market.”
“One of the biggest root causes of the challenge we face is a lack of coordination across the supply chain and growing pains from new grain marketing strategies following the change in role of the Canadian Wheat Board,” Mongeau said. “Despite the fact that CN will soon have moved more grain than ever before in its history crop-to-date, the benefit of its strong performance does not appear to be flowing to farmers as it did before. The faster we can ramp up tonnage, the quicker we will be able to mitigate the effects of the grain backlog for all Canadian farmers.”
Mongeau said that the grain elevator companies should stop complaining and start performing: “Having wrongly singled-out railways and unrealistically called for a near-doubling of railcar capacity since last fall, it is now time for grain elevators companies to step up to the capacity they claim to have, and do so in the corridors that will benefit Canadian farmers the most.”
“The recent view expressed by the Western Grain Elevator Association that the railways want to move too many grain loads to the West Coast and Thunder Bay is quite disconcerting,” Mongeau added. The “WGEA has complained all winter about having too many vessels waiting to be loaded on the West Coast, and the highly efficient Thunder Bay Port corridor is about to open for shipping very large quantities of grain to export market.”
“CN is committed to maximize throughput using the most efficient corridors available to address the huge grain backlog created by a 100-year crop,” Mongeau said. “In spite of the burden of being the only segment of the supply chain targeted by heavy-handed regulation, the rail industry will do its part to quickly ramp up to move as much tonnage as possible. Unfounded railway bashing by grain stakeholders and the government’s ill-advised legislation to unfairly punish the rail industry are unfortunately about to set Canada’s grain handling system backward. We steadfastly believe that ensuring commercial alignment and encouraging supply chain collaboration are much better ways to build a stronger transportation infrastructure to the benefit of Canadian farmers.”
Thanks for that Balt.
A very thorough and wide ranging response to the issue.
I remembered an odd item earlier this evening. There has been talk that this years crop won't be fully moved until next year. That is not a new occurrence for us. It gets really problematic when you have a crop the same size the following year. What I remembered was in the late sixties or very early seventies, on the front page of the first edition of the Calgary Herald printed in colour, a photo of a massive pile of grain outside of an elevator near Standard, AB. Storing grain outside like that was a very rare thing for us and it was due to back-to-back record crops. The problem was probably made worse by being right at the end of the grain in boxcars era.
As a non-Canadian and as a individual that has absolutely no knowledge about the Canadian Grain sales and distribution organization. It appears to me that the Sales and Distribution system is what is broken and what is causing most of the backlogs - not the railroads ability to furnish empty cars to the elevators and loaded cars to the ports. What I am reading out of the reports is that loaded cars are backing up at the ports, because of port issues that have nothing to do with the railroads, yet the farmers continue to blame the railroads for not supplying even more than a record number of cars, without the farmers giving any share of the blame to the port interests. I could be wrong.
The entire system must work as a 'well oiled machine' - and right now it appears to be a out of oil Yugo.
CP's President & COO Keith Creel addresses Agriculture Standing Committee Hearing in Ottawa on Bill C-30.
Now both CN and CP have put forth what IMO are pretty good responses to this government regulation. If both RR's keep pounding into the government's head that this is a total supply chain problem instead of just a RR issue, we may be getting somewhere.
http://www.cpr.ca/en/news-and-media/news/Pages/keith-creel-addresses-agriculture-standing-committee.aspx
AgentKid CP's President & COO Keith Creel addresses Agriculture Standing Committee Hearing in Ottawa on Bill C-30. Now both CN and CP have put forth what IMO are pretty good responses to this government regulation. If both RR's keep pounding into the government's head that this is a total supply chain problem instead of just a RR issue, we may be getting somewhere. http://www.cpr.ca/en/news-and-media/news/Pages/keith-creel-addresses-agriculture-standing-committee.aspx Bruce
One thing that gets me from this 'press release' is that the 'Note on forward-looking information ' has more space on the release than does the comments on the grain situation. PYA!
BaltACDOne thing that gets me from this 'press release' is that the 'Note on forward-looking information ' has more space on the release than does the comments on the grain situation. PYA!
You win the grand prize!
I have been waiting for years for someone to comment on that, on this or any other forum I follow.
I know this seems to be dragging on, but here is a story regarding the written submission by the Saskatchewan Provincial Government to the Canadian Government regarding Bill C-30. Saskatchewan is the largest grain producing province in Canada.
http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/saskatchewan-asks-federal-committee-to-toughen-law-to-clear-grain-backlog-1.1761351
AgentKid I know this seems to be dragging on, but here is a story regarding the written submission by the Saskatchewan Provincial Government to the Canadian Government regarding Bill C-30. Saskatchewan is the largest grain producing province in Canada. http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/saskatchewan-asks-federal-committee-to-toughen-law-to-clear-grain-backlog-1.1761351 Bruce
Nothing like attacking the wrong problem with the wrong tool!
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