Evidence of meeting #110 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was capacity.
A recording is available from Parliament.
10:35 a.m.
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
To what degree do the various regulations that the municipalities impose individually complicate truck movements in metro Vancouver?
10:35 a.m.
Vice-President, Transportation Planning and Policy, New Westminster, TransLink
I think it's quite a bit. That's one of the things for which we've been trying to bring everybody to the table in our urban freight council, which includes the port and the gateway, the regional administrators, and the CAOs of the major municipalities. It's looking at what kinds of things they're doing that could be incompatible in some situations with our shipping and gateway functions, whether it be the requirements that they're making for densification around our major truck routes or parking management—all sorts of things. We're trying to highlight where we can be better aligned in that regard, to mitigate some of the impacts.
10:35 a.m.
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
Now we'll shift to the railways because I think your stories are probably quite similar. South of the Fraser—i.e. GCT Deltaport, and so on—would appear to have a lot more capacity for growth than the downtown port in Burrard Inlet. Is there a point at which you would see—and I've asked the same question of port metro Vancouver—that you've gone as far as you can go with a downtown port, and it's time to look elsewhere? For instance, the inland terminal at Ashcroft is an example of a more recent development where we think outside the footprint of metro Vancouver in terms of the trade corridor.
We'll start with you, James.
10:40 a.m.
Vice-President, Strategic Planning and Transportation Services, Canadian Pacific Railway
I talked about that corridor and the West Coast Express. There is about 25% capacity on our main operational line between Coquitlam and downtown that is consumed with commuters. We would say that, if we could come up with a long-term strategy to disentangle commuter and freight, there's a fair amount of capacity that we could create for additional services into the harbour there.
We are certainly also seeking other solutions. We recently opened a transloading facility in Coquitlam, and our vision there is to take trucks off the road and transload them out on the periphery. Then we can deliver containers to the ports or receive containers from the port and transload them into other railcars further away from the downtown harbour.
We would support alternative solutions, and we believe they exist.
10:40 a.m.
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
Mr. Ollmann, on the short-line, especially again south of the Fraser and including New Westminster and Annacis Island, would you see more efficiencies being available there than you would, say, in the downtown port?
10:40 a.m.
President, Southern Railway of British Columbia
That is our core business, what James is speaking to, transloading and providing industrial land that is not contiguous to the class 1 rail corridor. The opportunity to get rail service as opposed to truck service, transload and use their goods is our primary function. I think there are opportunities for us to fortify our network, build auxiliary track and promote the movement of goods by rail.
10:40 a.m.
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
Mr. Bodner, you mentioned the New Westminster rail bridge, but you also have a tunnel that has to be clear for 20 minutes between trains. Would fixing that problem—and you can maybe describe it briefly for the benefit of those who don't know about it—mean a substantial lift in your capacity to move, especially, the containers in and out of the downtown port?
10:40 a.m.
Director, Business Development, Canadian National Railway Company
It doesn't do too much for the containers, because that tunnel leads to the north shore. The north shore is where a lot of terminal expansion has taken place, and G3 is coming on stream at the end of next year. All that expansion is about a 50% increase in demand. There's an 11,000-foot tunnel that leads to a 2,000-foot bridge that lifts for marine traffic five hours a day. We need to squeeze the headways between trains in order to get more to and from the north shore. It's the end of the line. A train has to come off before a train can go on.
We feel that that will align with the capacity demands on the north shore once that's done. That's one of the projects the federal government has approved for funding, $78 million towards a $200-million project that we hope to have done by the end of 20—
10:40 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
I'm trying to keep everybody in line here.
Mr. Aubin, go ahead for five minutes please.
10:40 a.m.
NDP
Robert Aubin NDP Trois-Rivières, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, gentlemen, for being here with us this morning and for sharing your expertise with us.
I think it was Mr. Bodner who said in the beginning that we are in the middle of Rail Safety Week. It is hard to avoid the fact that rail accidents rose by 21% in 2017 compared to the year before.
How do you explain that figure? I understand that no one wants there to be accidents, but is it related to the increase in traffic or operator fatigue, for example?
My question is for Mr. Clements and Mr. Bodner
10:40 a.m.
Director, Business Development, Canadian National Railway Company
First of all, I don't know what that statistic is from, the increase, what type of accident you're talking about, whether those are crossing accidents, reportable accidents or what they are. I don't follow our stats as closely as a lot of other people in the operation of our railway do, but what I read is that generally our safety record is improving over time, so I'm not quite sure about that statistic you're quoting.
10:40 a.m.
Vice-President, Strategic Planning and Transportation Services, Canadian Pacific Railway
I'd have to echo that I need a little more context to answer the question, because, overall, our train accident frequency of what are called reportable accidents has continued to improve, and we continue to be the safest railway in North America.
10:40 a.m.
President, Southern Railway of British Columbia
From an SRY perspective, our accidents in 2017 actually went down. We run a much different operation than a class 1 railway. We're very scheduled and that's been an advantage that a short-line operator has over a class 1. We don't do that “first in, first out” style of service. It's very regimented and scheduled. We can't compare ourselves to the class 1 system.
10:45 a.m.
NDP
Robert Aubin NDP Trois-Rivières, QC
Do you acknowledge that operator fatigue can be a problem? Could working long hours in a row have an impact on compliance with safety standards?
10:45 a.m.
Vice-President, Strategic Planning and Transportation Services, Canadian Pacific Railway
When we look at the long hours, I think we have to get to the facts. Over the investigations we've done, the average locomotive engineer conductor works just under 40 hours a week, which is consistent with what other industries and people tend to work in a normal workweek. I think the debate on fatigue is a complicated one, because there are night shifts and other things, but overall, we don't think the total hours are an issue.
10:45 a.m.
NDP
Robert Aubin NDP Trois-Rivières, QC
In the current economic situation, we are facing an increasing shortage of labour across Canada. Is that shortage reflected in your ability to grow and find operators, in particular?
10:45 a.m.
Vice-President, Strategic Planning and Transportation Services, Canadian Pacific Railway
I would describe it as a regional challenge in terms of the economic growth. There are locations on our network where it is much more challenging to recruit and train locomotive engineers.
10:45 a.m.
Director, Business Development, Canadian National Railway Company
It's absolutely the case. Some of our greatest challenges are at the extreme ends of our network, and some of those ends of our network are seeing growth, so it's difficult to get people and retain people. When you're in a resource area that pays exceedingly well in some cases, you get people in place, and then they have options they can move to and we find ourselves having to replace them.
You're right. It is a challenge.
10:45 a.m.
President, Southern Railway of British Columbia
I would agree. SRY is facing the same experiences as the class 1. Vancouver is a very expensive area to live. Railway jobs pay well, but it's a competitive environment and people are looking elsewhere than the classic railway industry.
10:45 a.m.
NDP
Robert Aubin NDP Trois-Rivières, QC
I turn to you, Mr. Ollmann.
In your preliminary statements, you referred very briefly to the pressure you face from environmental regulations that apply to your company. Could you elaborate on that?
10:45 a.m.
President, Southern Railway of British Columbia
Sure. Locomotive emissions is one of the areas. We operate in metro Vancouver's airshed. I operate a railway that has approximately 25 to 27 active locomotives at any one time. Replenishing and renewing the locomotives for SRY is a challenge. A locomotive could be $3 million to $4 million, and a typical high-horsepower locomotive doesn't fit with the short-line sector. We have to look to other various types of technologies that can perform the duty.
10:45 a.m.
Liberal
Angelo Iacono Liberal Alfred-Pellan, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I will share my time with my colleague, Mr. Hardie.
My questions are for all witnesses.
[Technical difficulties]
According to the report by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, the rail network in Western Canada should almost triple its capacity to meet demand by 2045. What are your thoughts on that?
Does the rail network in Canada have the capacity to achieve that projected increase in goods traffic?
In your case, what measures do you plan to take to achieve that?