Saturday, March 07, 2009
BC Rail: Northern BC took the full brunt of the fall-out from losing BC Rail to CN. Here's a rare glimpse of what that's been like ...
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Rail service
cfvua
The Tyee - March 6, 2009
... others may not be familiar with how much more it costs now in the Northeast to do business, since the giveaway of BC Rail.
We now have essentially no service and in the case of trailer on flat car (TOFC) no service at all. This service allowed trailers to be loaded onto the train in Vancouver (2 per rail car) and allowed delivery of them with a simple truck tractor. No need for gargantuan container handlers or the rock solid yard they need to operate.
The equipment was sold by CN and went to Australia, a country with large distances to cover with sparse population (go figure).
One real reason that BC Rail couldn't make a profit was due to other railroads and phony interlining agreements, which would not allow BC Rail to access their networks or which pay the originating carrier the largest portion of the tarriff (good for BCR, bad for the others).
BC Rail was essentially boxed in to BC. I have a hard time believing that this wasn't a set up to make the BC Rail fail or at least appear to lose money so we could give it away. All that needed to be done was a serious environmental review of the others and they would most likely have seen the benefit in leaving BCR alone.
CN would not repair bridges that would allow shipping to the east from Dawson Creek to Grande Prairie and beyond thereby adding a 500 km detour to Prince George, then Edmonton. Thank CN for putting countless truckloads of lumber on the roads and adding to shipping costs for local mills especially in the Peace.
CN only repaired and fixed up the track after political pressure was applied (it was part of the deal) and are making a point by never having put a train on that stretch of track.
When you ask for that service, you are told it is not available. I am told that BC rail tried to purchase the line from CN, but they wouldn't sell it. Now we get to pay more to build Wind Energy, Oil and gas projects and even the groceries and booze that used to come on the rail now cost more and also add to overall emissions and highway congestion.
It saddens me to think that I at one time supported these folks. The only business that means anything to these people is big business. Small business can be sacrificed. The only thing these folks might understand is a good public flogging at election time.
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This comment by a Citizen Journalist was posted on The Tyee, following Railgate Bombshell by Bill Tieleman, published March 3, 2009. I have invited "cfvua" to join us here, and I hope he/she will tell us exactly where this is happening. For the moment, it's enough to know that it's happening "somewhere in north-eastern B.C." ...
Sincere thanks to "cfvua" and The Tyee for this: - BC Mary.
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Rail service
cfvua
The Tyee - March 6, 2009
... others may not be familiar with how much more it costs now in the Northeast to do business, since the giveaway of BC Rail.
We now have essentially no service and in the case of trailer on flat car (TOFC) no service at all. This service allowed trailers to be loaded onto the train in Vancouver (2 per rail car) and allowed delivery of them with a simple truck tractor. No need for gargantuan container handlers or the rock solid yard they need to operate.
The equipment was sold by CN and went to Australia, a country with large distances to cover with sparse population (go figure).
One real reason that BC Rail couldn't make a profit was due to other railroads and phony interlining agreements, which would not allow BC Rail to access their networks or which pay the originating carrier the largest portion of the tarriff (good for BCR, bad for the others).
BC Rail was essentially boxed in to BC. I have a hard time believing that this wasn't a set up to make the BC Rail fail or at least appear to lose money so we could give it away. All that needed to be done was a serious environmental review of the others and they would most likely have seen the benefit in leaving BCR alone.
CN would not repair bridges that would allow shipping to the east from Dawson Creek to Grande Prairie and beyond thereby adding a 500 km detour to Prince George, then Edmonton. Thank CN for putting countless truckloads of lumber on the roads and adding to shipping costs for local mills especially in the Peace.
CN only repaired and fixed up the track after political pressure was applied (it was part of the deal) and are making a point by never having put a train on that stretch of track.
When you ask for that service, you are told it is not available. I am told that BC rail tried to purchase the line from CN, but they wouldn't sell it. Now we get to pay more to build Wind Energy, Oil and gas projects and even the groceries and booze that used to come on the rail now cost more and also add to overall emissions and highway congestion.
It saddens me to think that I at one time supported these folks. The only business that means anything to these people is big business. Small business can be sacrificed. The only thing these folks might understand is a good public flogging at election time.
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
This comment by a Citizen Journalist was posted on The Tyee, following Railgate Bombshell by Bill Tieleman, published March 3, 2009. I have invited "cfvua" to join us here, and I hope he/she will tell us exactly where this is happening. For the moment, it's enough to know that it's happening "somewhere in north-eastern B.C." ...
Sincere thanks to "cfvua" and The Tyee for this: - BC Mary.
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Comments:
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Thank you for giving this personsonal account the attention it deserves, Mary. So often, our government has made decisions without thinking or caring about how those decisions will impact the citizenry. When the railway was sold, the people of the North had been making prudent judgements about buying land and building up businesses based upon the railway having been available to them for many years. When resources (like a Provincially owned railroad) that have been providing service for generations are sold off and dismantled, real people, real communities, get hurt. It seems that the hundreds of thousands of dollars donated to the Liberals by CN's leader, trumps the needs of thousands of northern BC citizens and the desires of the millions of other people in BC who did not want BC Rail sold.
Remember, SharingIsGood
Remember, SharingIsGood
# posted by 
: March 7, 2009 at 2:49 p.m.
: March 7, 2009 at 2:49 p.m.
" Thank CN for putting countless truckloads of lumber on the roads (with environmental added costs - kc) and adding to shipping costs for local mills especially in the Peace.
"
" Now we get to pay more to build Wind Energy, Oil and gas projects and even the groceries and booze that used to come on the rail now cost more and also add to overall emissions and highway congestion."
Yep and this is the divine plan of Gordo the Green - whose "Green" leadership is promoted by the Canned Waste Jackals and even bought into by so-called environmentalists like the apparently gone senile David Suzuki.
Of course this is the same Gordo the Crime Fighter who fights organized crime by cutting prosecution budgets, closing court houses and by running a government that could serve as a role model for aspiring organized criminals everywhere.
The only consistent values of the Campbell Government are greed and hypocrisy. If the citizens of BC re-elect these crooks yet again, they should all be institutionalized as dangers to themselves and others.
BTW, they opened a 12 bed shelter in Vernon for women (temporary) recently and as a result (p)Rich Coleman, the "housing czar," has announced homelessness has been eliiminated in Vernon
These clowns should not only not be running and looting our province but should be locked up for the protection of society.
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"
" Now we get to pay more to build Wind Energy, Oil and gas projects and even the groceries and booze that used to come on the rail now cost more and also add to overall emissions and highway congestion."
Yep and this is the divine plan of Gordo the Green - whose "Green" leadership is promoted by the Canned Waste Jackals and even bought into by so-called environmentalists like the apparently gone senile David Suzuki.
Of course this is the same Gordo the Crime Fighter who fights organized crime by cutting prosecution budgets, closing court houses and by running a government that could serve as a role model for aspiring organized criminals everywhere.
The only consistent values of the Campbell Government are greed and hypocrisy. If the citizens of BC re-elect these crooks yet again, they should all be institutionalized as dangers to themselves and others.
BTW, they opened a 12 bed shelter in Vernon for women (temporary) recently and as a result (p)Rich Coleman, the "housing czar," has announced homelessness has been eliiminated in Vernon
These clowns should not only not be running and looting our province but should be locked up for the protection of society.
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