(The following appeared on the Windsor Star website on November 26.)
VANCOUVER, B.C. — A court has ruled against Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. and Canadian National Railway Co. in a battle over grain hauling revenue and the cost of maintaining the government’s grain car fleet.
Canada’s two largest railways said Tuesday the ruling would cost each of them $23 million in revenue from the 2007-08 crop year, with CN warning it will have to review future investments in grain-related infrastructure and equipment.
On Monday, the Federal Court of Appeal rejected the railways’ argument that the Canadian Transportation Agency erred in the way it retroactively cut the amount of revenue the carriers could earn from shippers in the 2007-08 crop year.
The court also rejected Canadian Pacific’s claim the regulators wrongly used rival Canadian National’s data to determine how much it cost both railways to maintain their share of the hopper car fleet.
The cars are owned by the federal government but operated and maintained by the railways.