(The Canadian Press circulated the following story by Allan Swift on October 15.)
MONTREAL — Canadian trains are carrying more goods and people at less cost than ever before, say statistics released Tuesday by the Railway Association of Canada.
Canadian railways reported record revenues in 2002 of $8.1 billion despite a severe drought on the Prairies that cut into grain traffic, as well as a poor North American economy.
This was up 1.1 per cent from the previous year and a jump of 25.7 per cent since 1993, said the association in its annual report called Railway Trends.
The report, issued after the association had gathered data from its 60 railway members, also points to a steady growth in inter-city and commuter rail passenger traffic.
Inter-city rail passenger service revenues reached $278 million in 2002 compared with $255 million in 2001, a gain of nine per cent.
The number of rail commuters in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec grew to 49.3 million in 2002, up 2.7 per cent, compared with 48 million in 2001.
Association president Bill Rowat repeated the industry’s call for the federal government to level the playing field with road transport in its fiscal policies, noting that railways paid $644 million in taxes last year.
“All or any part of those taxes would have been better spent on railway infrastructure which would have benefited communities across Canada, and improved freight and passenger services,” Rowat said in a release.
Railways handled 321 billion revenue-tonne kilometres (RTK), a measurement combining tonnes of freight with the distance carried. This was unchanged from the prior year, and down only a half of one per cent from the record achieved in 2000.
Compared with a decade ago when Canadian rail moved 244 billion RTK, the industry’s workload has surged ahead by 31.7 per cent, the report said.
Two key market segments prevented overall growth in volumes last year: the drought responsible for the smallest Canadian grain crop in 25 years; and lower shipments of metallurgical coal used for steel-making as that industry is still going through a difficult period.
Offsetting those impacts were increased automotive and intermodal shipments.
Employee productivity, measured in revenue tonne kilometres per employee, grew 6.4 per cent over 2001, despite transporting the same workload two years in a row. This was accomplished by a 5.6 per cent reduction in the workforce which shrank to 37,296 employees in 2002 from 39,511 employees in 2001.
RTK per employee over 10 years improved by 125.7 per cent, through a 31.7 per cent increase in workload handled by a 35 per cent smaller workforce.
The report also suggests that small railways, called short lines, are doing well at least by volumes. Carloads that originated on short lines reached 1.1 million last year, more than double the number in 1993.
Track kilometres operated by short lines grew to 27.9 per cent of the total freight network from 13.2 per cent in 1993. That has been due to Class 1 railways, such as Canadian National, transferring lower density lines to short-line operators during a restructuring period that largely ended in 2000.