As previously reported, the government has, through the passage of Bill C-47, temporarily extended the distance of regulated railway interswitching from the current 30 km limit (the distance between the shipper’s origin point and the interchange point) to 160 km on the Prairie Provinces for an 18-month trial period that is commencing in September.
As background, this same extension was in place on the Prairies from 2014 to 2017 following a large grain crop in 2013 and major railway service problems in handling the crop.
On September 18, the Canadian Transportation Agency published the regulated rates that will be applicable for traffic moved from the point of origin to the interchange point within the 160 km limit.
Within the 30 km radius limit in the permanent interswitching regulations, there are five zones (1, 2, 3, 4A, 4B) where the Agency establishes the rates on an annual basis, and the 2023 rates can be found on the Agency website at the following link.
https://otc-cta.gc.ca/eng/ruling/r-2022-164
The Agency has created “Zone 5” for movements beyond Zone 4B and up to the 160 km limit. For Zone 5, the Agency has set a base rate for movements up to 40 track kilometres within the zone, plus a rate per additional kilometre for the 41st, and each subsequent kilometre of track distance.
The Zone 5 rates per car are:
a) for single cars: $849 + $4.48 per additional km
b) for car blocks of 60 cars or more: $333 + $1.69 per additional km.
The English and French versions of CTA Determination R-2023-178, providing details on the new rates, and how they were determined, can be found by clicking the links below.
