CN is assuring farmers their crops will get to market this year.
The railway company has admitted it made a series of mistakes that led to a backlog that riled farmers and producer groups and put rail executives in the hot seat in Ottawa.
CN apologized last month and said it is taking immediate steps to fix the problems.
Sean Finn, a CN executive vice-president, said on Tuesday the company has ordered 200 new locomotives, which take about a year to arrive, and leased 130 in the interim. The grain car fleet is getting 1,000 more cars that will begin arriving towards the end of this year.
As well, capital investment has been bumped up to more than $3 billion, including $250 million to build new track and yard capacity in Western Canada, said Finn, executive vice-president of corporate services.
CN was caught “flat-footed” when its three-per-cent growth prediction was well off the mark, with growth ranging from 11 to 20 per cent depending on the product, he said.
The company went on a hiring spree, but it takes eight months to train conductors as an example. About 600 people have been hired with another 400 expected by the end of June.
Finn said due to these measures and others farmers can expect much better performance this year.
New federal legislation introduced last year will require rail companies to have by the summer a plan in place to move the anticipated fall grain crop and to follow up with a contingency plan by Oct. 1 showing how they will keep shipments rolling despite bad weather or other challenges.
Finn said the company supports the federal government moves.
“To us, to be accountable to our customers is very important.”
Red Deer County Mayor Jim Wood said improvements are needed for the rail system, which is critical to agriculture, and will only become more so as yields increase.
“It doesn’t take much of a bottleneck to create a huge problem in the farming community as far as moving grain,” said Wood.
In a business like farming, where the cash comes in during a small window, reliable transportation is a must.
“They need to be able to sell their grain when they have it contracted. That grain has to go towards keeping the operation functioning. It can create huge hardship when a farmer is not able to sell their grain when they should.”
Wood said rail issues have been a problem for years.
“This isn’t just this year. Every time there’s a large amount of grain, it seems it happens.
“I think there’s an onus to not just haul the most lucrative product but to, in fact, make sure that all the commodities get to market as they should.”
pcowley@reddeeradvocate.com
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