In Ottawa, Ontario Tuesday, the Coalition of Rail Shippers (CRS) called for early action, including federal policy measures, to find durable solutions to ongoing service problems resulting from a lack of competition in Canada's rail transportation industry.
The CRS, a group of eighteen industry associations representing hundreds of companies and hundreds of thousands of workers, accounts for over 80 percent of the revenues of Canada's national rail freight carriers, CN and CP. Members of the coalition met in Ottawa Monday to finalize their response to the interim report of the Rail Freight Service Review Panel which conducted the most exhaustive review of rail freight service ever undertaken in Canada.
The CRS appreciates the work of the panel but maintains the recommendations did not go far enough in addressing what the report identifies as a lack of effective competition and inadequate service. CRS agrees with the analysis which identifies the major cause of rail service failures as "railway market power, which leads to an imbalance in the commercial relationships between the railways and other stakeholders."
"Canada's shippers need regulations at an early stage to rebalance the bargaining power between railways and their customers." says the Chairman of the CRS, Bob Ballantyne. "Rail service is too inconsistent to provide the reliable and predictable service that Canadian industry needs to remain competitive. We would like a regulatory backstop to be brought in now, not years from now." Ballantyne said the panel's report acknowledges "it has long been recognized in transportation law that regulations are required to address potential abuse of market power by the railways."