The they have to deadhead all those empty cars back up here to fill’em again.
Warren Buffet must love it.
Are the rails made of Reardon Steel? If so there may yet be hope.
BNSF, CPR, CN rail, all winners in the rail oil. But only one of those companies have a direct link to the whitehouse.
Not to mention I smell a rat with the former wheat board execs working with the rail roads to slow down our ability to get wheat to market. I think it is funny that we never herd of or had that problem when the wheat board was here.
I personally think it is a “hey!, nice bumper crop you got there, be shame if something was to happen to it” and I think the rail roads are doing it in conjunction with the ex wheat board people.
I know there is a shortage of cars as well, but this is ridiculous, think of all of those cars filled with wheat , and a pipeline running underground carrying all the oil, bitumen ,LNG, ect ect way safer and the enviro’s have been told by there masters what to do. folks we are at an impasse. this needs to be dealt with acutely and promptly
Oil over rail means grain and oilseeds sit in farmers bins. Build the pipeline already
I don’t think they carry oil in hopper cars, or grain in tank cars…:-) although, I certainly wouldn’t put it past them to orchestrate a shortage of hopper cars.
There were shortages of hoppers cars before, you just didn’t hear about it when the wheat board was in charge.
Currently there is an rail oil loading/unloading facility being build at Hardisty Alberta. It should be complete any day now.
whoever took this vid is smart.. I do the same where I can.. Sit far enough back so that if it derails I’m not part of it, but people behind me aren’t as chicken as I am, they think that 100 ft. is wasting too much time for them to make up when the crossing clears.
“The Keystone Pipeline. Currently running above ground.”
The above caption pretty much sums it up. I have no evidence, but I suspect that grain hoppers are sitting idle in dumps in various location across the prairies, and that this is a distinct possibility due to locomotive shortage. Plus, due to bureaucratic pricing restrictions for grain hauling, the hauling of oil tankers is more profitable. Just a hunch.
There are hopper cars for grain sitting idle, and some cars unusable because of a backlog of repair work, but there is also a shortage of crews to run more trains – notice both CP and CN have been recruiting because they cut costs in recent years by cutting staff. They would move the grain if they could, but they can charge more for moving oil, so the oil gets priority and the grain has to wait.
Embittered ex-Wheat Board people now employed by the railroads or elsewhere may be gloating over farmers who can’t get their product to market, but with people like Hunter Harrison running the railways there won’t be tolerance of them making it worse.
CNR stated that oil movement was 5% of their tonnage last year. Movement of grain is related to timing and can put huge demands on the system. If I remember accurately CNR was spending over $2 Billion on infrastructure in 2014.
If the economy continues to recover (questionable IMHO) all commodities will increase in price and demand.
There is a very finite limit to the amount of traffic a railway can sustain…..
Basically there ain’t much surplus rail capacity….more of one commodity forces a back log in another.
Here in SW Ontario CN has a double line while CP is a single….observation indicates CP runs trains one way for a period then t’other way…..often those trains are only 10 er so minutes apart….indicating the potential possible…regardless, half of CP Rail’s Ontario trains are standing on sidings at any given time.
In the west, the Rogers Pass is a notorious rail bottle-neck.
It’s a no brainer that Keystone would ease a lot of current shipping delays.
I guess a lot of hopper cars are sitting idle….to ship US corn to US ethanol plants. Heh. Didn’t the US just slash subsidies to corn producers after last year’s bumper crop? The stuff all those “climate change/warming” tornadoes didn’t suck up, that is.
Oil by Rail is even bigger in the US. Pipeline capacity is reaching a limit and rail is taking up the slack until new pipe is laid. What else is sitting on a siding….somewhere?
Yo, Barry….Unintended consequences.
The problem with wheat transport is that under the wheat board you could only ship a certain amount at a time. Every so often they would open a quota for grain and the farmers would then be able to ship a certain amonut of grain. You couldn’t take the whole harvest to the elevator whenever you wanted. Now with no wheat board controlling shipment the farmer can take his whole crop all at once (I, Know, novel idea)and that, accompanied by a huge bumper crop this year, means a shortage of cars. Probably an “unintended consequence”.
It doesn’t really matter how much grain is sold at one time. When there’s no rail cars delivered to the elevator there is no grain movement. The terminal we try and deliver grain to hasn’t seen a rail car in 9 weeks. The returns from a terrific crop grown by farmers last year has been destroyed by terrible performance by the two railways. They have taken billions of dollars away from farmers and in turn out of the Canadian economy. CP has bragged about parking 450 locomotives and cutting staff so as to be more profitable. Meanwhile Canada’s reputation, or what was left of it, as a reliable supplier of grain to the world is being destroyed. The rail companies should be held to account.
The rail companies should be held to account.
Nobody owns a publicly traded company. Who are you going to hold to account? When everybody owns it, nobody owns it. They’re a commune.
It does point out the relative efficiencies, though. Farmers can grow and prosper on 1970’s prices, while publicly traded companies can’t get the job done with 2014 prices.
Subtract from that UREA supply the hundreds of thousands of gallons now going into diesel trucks as an enzyme to break up nitrogen dioxides. Our one new truck uses two gallons a week sometimes more. As I replace the other three we will be using four times that.
Just to clarify, these are just 1-Tons not semis.
Let me know when it is time to “bug out”. I’ll meet you in Colorado baga timmies. Wait a minute meeting in Colorado has whole new meeting. Cheers;
Sorry should have been meaning, but I guess meeting means about the same now.
What I don’t understand about the whole Keystone thing is why the decision to build an energy pipeline is any business of the president of the United States. Are all economic decisions up to the president? Can he tell people to buy Corn Flakes rather than Rice Krispies for breakfast?
The proper function of government is to protect individual rights. In the context of a pipeline that would mean it’s government’s job to make sure, if there is a leak and if innocent individuals suffer from it, that the owners are held responsible, clean up whatever mess results, and compensate the victims. The decision to build the pipeline should be strictly up to the business that wants to run it. Provided of course that they can get property owners over its path to sell their land for it — voluntarily.
nv53- The pipeline crosses an international border. But Obama wants all power, as well.
The they have to deadhead all those empty cars back up here to fill’em again.
Warren Buffet must love it.
Are the rails made of Reardon Steel? If so there may yet be hope.
BNSF, CPR, CN rail, all winners in the rail oil. But only one of those companies have a direct link to the whitehouse.
Not to mention I smell a rat with the former wheat board execs working with the rail roads to slow down our ability to get wheat to market. I think it is funny that we never herd of or had that problem when the wheat board was here.
I personally think it is a “hey!, nice bumper crop you got there, be shame if something was to happen to it” and I think the rail roads are doing it in conjunction with the ex wheat board people.
I know there is a shortage of cars as well, but this is ridiculous, think of all of those cars filled with wheat , and a pipeline running underground carrying all the oil, bitumen ,LNG, ect ect way safer and the enviro’s have been told by there masters what to do. folks we are at an impasse. this needs to be dealt with acutely and promptly
Oil over rail means grain and oilseeds sit in farmers bins. Build the pipeline already
I don’t think they carry oil in hopper cars, or grain in tank cars…:-) although, I certainly wouldn’t put it past them to orchestrate a shortage of hopper cars.
There were shortages of hoppers cars before, you just didn’t hear about it when the wheat board was in charge.
Currently there is an rail oil loading/unloading facility being build at Hardisty Alberta. It should be complete any day now.
whoever took this vid is smart.. I do the same where I can.. Sit far enough back so that if it derails I’m not part of it, but people behind me aren’t as chicken as I am, they think that 100 ft. is wasting too much time for them to make up when the crossing clears.
“The Keystone Pipeline. Currently running above ground.”
The above caption pretty much sums it up. I have no evidence, but I suspect that grain hoppers are sitting idle in dumps in various location across the prairies, and that this is a distinct possibility due to locomotive shortage. Plus, due to bureaucratic pricing restrictions for grain hauling, the hauling of oil tankers is more profitable. Just a hunch.
There are hopper cars for grain sitting idle, and some cars unusable because of a backlog of repair work, but there is also a shortage of crews to run more trains – notice both CP and CN have been recruiting because they cut costs in recent years by cutting staff. They would move the grain if they could, but they can charge more for moving oil, so the oil gets priority and the grain has to wait.
Embittered ex-Wheat Board people now employed by the railroads or elsewhere may be gloating over farmers who can’t get their product to market, but with people like Hunter Harrison running the railways there won’t be tolerance of them making it worse.
CNR stated that oil movement was 5% of their tonnage last year. Movement of grain is related to timing and can put huge demands on the system. If I remember accurately CNR was spending over $2 Billion on infrastructure in 2014.
If the economy continues to recover (questionable IMHO) all commodities will increase in price and demand.
There is a very finite limit to the amount of traffic a railway can sustain…..
Basically there ain’t much surplus rail capacity….more of one commodity forces a back log in another.
Here in SW Ontario CN has a double line while CP is a single….observation indicates CP runs trains one way for a period then t’other way…..often those trains are only 10 er so minutes apart….indicating the potential possible…regardless, half of CP Rail’s Ontario trains are standing on sidings at any given time.
In the west, the Rogers Pass is a notorious rail bottle-neck.
It’s a no brainer that Keystone would ease a lot of current shipping delays.
I guess a lot of hopper cars are sitting idle….to ship US corn to US ethanol plants. Heh. Didn’t the US just slash subsidies to corn producers after last year’s bumper crop? The stuff all those “climate change/warming” tornadoes didn’t suck up, that is.
Oil by Rail is even bigger in the US. Pipeline capacity is reaching a limit and rail is taking up the slack until new pipe is laid. What else is sitting on a siding….somewhere?
Yo, Barry….Unintended consequences.
The problem with wheat transport is that under the wheat board you could only ship a certain amount at a time. Every so often they would open a quota for grain and the farmers would then be able to ship a certain amonut of grain. You couldn’t take the whole harvest to the elevator whenever you wanted. Now with no wheat board controlling shipment the farmer can take his whole crop all at once (I, Know, novel idea)and that, accompanied by a huge bumper crop this year, means a shortage of cars. Probably an “unintended consequence”.
It doesn’t really matter how much grain is sold at one time. When there’s no rail cars delivered to the elevator there is no grain movement. The terminal we try and deliver grain to hasn’t seen a rail car in 9 weeks. The returns from a terrific crop grown by farmers last year has been destroyed by terrible performance by the two railways. They have taken billions of dollars away from farmers and in turn out of the Canadian economy. CP has bragged about parking 450 locomotives and cutting staff so as to be more profitable. Meanwhile Canada’s reputation, or what was left of it, as a reliable supplier of grain to the world is being destroyed. The rail companies should be held to account.
The rail companies should be held to account.
Nobody owns a publicly traded company. Who are you going to hold to account? When everybody owns it, nobody owns it. They’re a commune.
It does point out the relative efficiencies, though. Farmers can grow and prosper on 1970’s prices, while publicly traded companies can’t get the job done with 2014 prices.
Further adding to the rail logistic mess is what is about to happen to fertilizer price/availability for the upcoming crop year.
Best case scenario: Fertilizer (urea) prices will rise going into the heavy use spring season.
Worst case scenario: The potential that adequate supplies will not be suffiently positioned to fill farmers needs.
Scroll down to # 7 here for information:
https://www.fcc-fac.ca/en/ag-knowledge/publications/fcc-express/fcc-express-archives/20140221.html?utm_source=FCC+Emails&utm_campaign=78c071fcc7-Express_February_21_2014_EN_2_21_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ec568fff6d-78c071fcc7-16375589#story7
Subtract from that UREA supply the hundreds of thousands of gallons now going into diesel trucks as an enzyme to break up nitrogen dioxides. Our one new truck uses two gallons a week sometimes more. As I replace the other three we will be using four times that.
Just to clarify, these are just 1-Tons not semis.
Let me know when it is time to “bug out”. I’ll meet you in Colorado baga timmies. Wait a minute meeting in Colorado has whole new meeting. Cheers;
Sorry should have been meaning, but I guess meeting means about the same now.
What I don’t understand about the whole Keystone thing is why the decision to build an energy pipeline is any business of the president of the United States. Are all economic decisions up to the president? Can he tell people to buy Corn Flakes rather than Rice Krispies for breakfast?
The proper function of government is to protect individual rights. In the context of a pipeline that would mean it’s government’s job to make sure, if there is a leak and if innocent individuals suffer from it, that the owners are held responsible, clean up whatever mess results, and compensate the victims. The decision to build the pipeline should be strictly up to the business that wants to run it. Provided of course that they can get property owners over its path to sell their land for it — voluntarily.
nv53- The pipeline crosses an international border. But Obama wants all power, as well.