By Jeff Stagl, Managing Editor
After a more than four-year lull, short lines operating in Saskatchewan have obtained infrastructure improvement funding assistance from the province.
In late June, the Saskatchewan government announced the issuance of 13 grants totaling CA$530,000 through the province’s new Short Line Railway Improvement Program (SRIP) that was created late last year. Saskatchewan last provided short-line grants in 2017.
The SRIP proceeds will help the small-road recipients cover the cost of track upgrade and expansion work, rail rehabilitations, crossing surface or sightline improvements, bridge maintenance and other infrastructure projects. The province is issuing grants to each of the 13 provincially regulated short lines in Saskatchewan, which operate more than 2,000 miles of track, primarily to transport grain.
"We recognize the importance of the short-line rail industry and the vital role it plays in supporting our provincial supply chain," said Saskatchewan Highways Minister Jeremy Cockrill while announcing the grants on June 29. "Rail provides an important transportation link in moving agricultural goods and other products in and out of the province."
The funding was allocated based on the amount of trackage each railroad operates, with the smallest networks receiving at least CA$25,000.
The Great Sandhills Railway landed a CA$43,089 grant. The short line operates 135 miles of track in a former Canadian Pacific subdivision and interchanges with CP in Swift Current. Great Sandhills Railway The largest grants include CA$129,909 to the Great Western Railway; CA$87,035 to Big Sky Rail; CA$43,089 to Great Sandhills Railway; CA$37,515 to Carlton Trail Railway Co. (CTR); CA$29,155 to Last Mountain Railway; and CA$28,297 to Stewart Southern Railway.
The province is awarding CA$25,000 grants to seven short lines: Long Creek Railroad, Northern Lights Rail, Red Coat Road & Rail, Southern Rails Cooperative, Thunder Rail, Torch River Rail and Wheatland Rail.
Great Western Railway has allocated its grant proceeds toward the cost of installing ballast and other track materials, said Aaron Wenzel, the short line’s general manager, in an email. The railroad operates 400 miles of track previously owned by Canadian Pacific as well as a Fife Lake Railway subdivision, and manages 72 miles of track along the Red Coat Road & Rail under an operating and maintenance agreement.
For CTR, the proceeds have helped fund track maintenance work and the installation of news ties, wrote Julie Slagle, the marketing and communications manager for CTR parent OmniTRAX Inc., in an email. The short line operates 103 miles of track from Saskatoon to Prince Albert that formerly was owned by CN.
Meanwhile, Big Sky Rail’s parent lauded the funding help. The grant is welcome not only for the operations of AGT Food and Ingredients — which owns Big Sky Rail and Mobil Grain — but for the efficient operations of the province’s short-line network, said AGT President and CEO Murad Al-Katib in a press release.
“This funding helps maintain and improve our infrastructure, which ensures safe and efficient rail service that is critical to support producers as well as exporters of agricultural and other commodity products across Saskatchewan,” he said.
