Saskatchewan’s agriculture minister said it appears that federal legislation to create a long-term plan for moving grain by rail will contain measures farmers want to see.
But Lyle Stewart also said the devil is in the details, and those aren’t known yet.
READ MORE: Western farmers wait for changes to grain rail transportation
The legislation expected next spring is to include penalties for rail companies and grain shippers that don’t meet service level agreements and address extended interswitching limits – the transfer of traffic between two railway companies.
Farmers want interswitching kept at a distance of at least 160 kilometres to allow producers to access more rail lines.
Stewart said the interswitching distance hasn’t been decided yet and it needs to be done right in order for the legislation to be successful.
READ MORE: Federal Court denies CN appeal on grain shipping ruling
The second-largest crop on record is expected this year and farmers are worried about a repeat of a rail bottleneck that in 2013-2014 when much of the crop was left sitting in bins for months.
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