By Alice McFarlane

Rail line to the Port of Churchill still needs extensive repairs

Oct 18, 2022 | 3:08 PM

MELFORT, Sask. – Work continues on the rail line that services the Port of Churchill, however progress has been slow.

The Hudson Bay Route Association held its annual meeting Monday. The group has spent many years promoting awareness of the Port Churchill and importance of the rail line that serves the facility.

Extensive repairs are being made but there is no indication when grain movement might resume. The last shipment of grain to Churchill was in 2016 just before flooding caused significant damage to several sections of the line.

The Artic Gateway Group runs the Port of Churchill. It is a consortium of 29 Indigenous and 12 non-Indigenous communities, mostly in Northern Manitoba.

Chief executive officer of the Arctic Gateway Group Michael Woelcke said 360,000 tonnes of ballast will be crushed between now and next year.

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“They’re about halfway done with the ballast, and we have had enough ballast supplies to allow us to do whatever work we need in that regard throughout this season, and there’s enough to run us through next season and for completion of the project. They’re well underway. It’s working very well,” Woelcke said.

There were delays in acquiring a key piece of equipment which resulted in a shorter repair season.

“Through no fault of anyone here, there was a labour strike in the United States, which is where the undercutter came from and it was held up for eight weeks. Instead of a 12-week construction season, we had a four-week construction season,” he said. “Once we started, we learned a great deal, we learned that the machine works very well.”

Woelcke said another problem was a lot of ties are rotten, and old and it takes a lot of time then to either refasten them or replace them.

“Next year we’re going to run a tie program right in front of the undercutter, for example, so that we’re more effective and that we can work more quickly,” he said.

Another factor slowing line repairs is the fact that while no grain is moving on the Hudson Bay rail line there are still passenger and freight trains. If you want to repair tracks, the best way is to have no trains, according to Woelcke.

“But if we have no trains, we’re not going to move any business through the Port of Churchill. The trick is to find the balance between the two. How can we schedule our train traffic? How can we start building some freight traffic and at the same time, maximize our capital? I don’t have the answer for you today,” he said.

Woelcke said the undercutting machine is staying in northern Manitoba which means its will be ready to go in spring as soon as conditions allow.

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alice.mcfarlane@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @farmnewsNOW