SASKATOON – While emergency crews and transportation officials continue to tend to the community of Lac-Mégantic, others have turned their attention toward the issue of railway safety and whether trains are the best method of transport for Canada’s number one export – oil.
Currently, there are more than 2,000 km of railways under provincial jurisdiction, including short line railways that move grain, wood and oil.
They serve as links between remote delivery points for mainline rail carriers, such as Canadian National (CN) and Canadian Pacific (CP).
As of May 2013, more than 18 per cent of Saskatchewan’s oil was being shipped via rail cars. Overall shipment numbers in Canada have increased exponentially.
“We’ve seen from 20,000 barrels a day in 2008 to the end of 2012, up to 500,000 barrels a day,” said John Stephenson, fund manager with First Asset in Toronto.
This past May, 91,000 litres of crude was spilled in Jansen, Saskatchewan after five rail cars jumped the tracks. A berm was quickly built to contain the flow.
“Right now Canada sits at a juncture. By the early part of 2014, we will not have pipeline capacity that’s sufficient to take away all the oil we’re producing, so we’re going to have no choice but to truck it out or sent it out by rail,” said Stephenson.
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