NEW – Federal: CPA requests Transport Canada’s intervention on critical rail issues

The CPA recently sent a letter to the minister of transportation requesting Transport Canada’s intervention with rail providers to address increasingly inadequate rail service for propane shipments.

The CPA has consistently engaged with the minister to elevate the urgency of the critical rail issue and with several federal-led working groups that address supply chain challenges. Similar concerns have been voiced by the forestry and chemical sectors, among others.

Advocacy on this issue has gained traction as Canadian National Railway (CN) recently reached out to meet with the CPA. During the conversation, the CPA raised the following issues: missed switches, poor communication, inadequate service in winter months and labour challenges.

CN noted the CPA’s concerns and responded with the following points:

• Prolonged cold snaps this year have slowed down car air brakes; trains must operate at shorter lengths. There was also an increased number of faulty cars this year.
• Sarnia has outperformed expectations this year – two switches per day instead of the usual one.
• Specifically regarding shippers – they:
  • are sending in too many cars (exceeding agreements) too early and clogging up the rail system.
  • need to also build in resilience/ planning to accommodate for the winter season (e.g., offer additional on-site storage).
  • need to provide weekly forecasts prior to the winter season, which would allow CN to more effectively plan and schedule. 

CN, does however, acknowledge that communication has been slow with shippers and that vaccinations had an impact on their labour force this year. 

The CPA has suggested that ongoing communication with CN would be a good next step to discuss propane shipping opportunities, systems, planning and challenges, as well as 2022-2023 winter planning. The Association has reached out to Canadian Pacific to hopefully engage in similar dialogue. 

The CPA will continue to engage with the minister of transport and Natural Resources Canada, as well as the respective rail companies to encourage dialogue and identify solutions on a go-forward basis.