Rail Lines - Part A
Rail traffic in Saskatoon is a daily issue. It seems that all our City Council and Administration wants to do is refer to this as a complex issue without a real solution other than spending huge sums to get the rail traffic beyond the city. Since the rail companies are not feeling any pressure to want the same, a stand still is at hand while the rail companies fully operate and wait out the City to finally have to spend taxpayer funds to get rail lines outside our city core.
When the rail lines received their sweetheart deal, they were small trains running hugely essential commodities to bind Canada together. The backbone of the country, if you will. Not too many years ago train lengths might have been 5,000 feet but now trains near 3 times longer traverse our city on a daily basis.
Nothing I can find states that rail companies are allowed to run unlimited length trains through our city. In fact, in other jurisdictions and terrain, rail companies have to regularly traverse areas with smaller trains more frequently.
Not too many years ago, there was an apparent grain car shortage but at the same time endless massive oil trains were able to operate. Farming, oil, and mining are important to Saskatchewan. On a trip during this time I was stressed to find huge grain car trains stacked on sidings in Alberta past Wainwright. Five days later I returned home from a family visit and there again was the exact train configuration siting unchanged. Back in Saskatoon the news was talking about the stress on farmers and the lack of grain cars, but again, oil seemed to always be shipping even if potash and grain were not. About the same time, I found out that local rail company executives got paid bonuses for each and every oil car they pushed through their operating area. They were actively being paid to circumvent potash and grain car transportation to instead maximize oil transportation. This is offensive to me. If daily circulation delays in our city are caused by companies that ignore the economic fabric of the community they traverse, well a change is needed in their thinking.
I propose that we work to limit the length of all trains passing through the City. That would result in more smaller trains but quicker resumption of traffic in between. I suspect that shorter trains could travel slightly faster as well through the City so that would shorten the traffic delays as well.
I calculated two options that could be contemplated for the West side. There is enough grade and available length on the rail tracks that cross 33rd at Circle drive that the tracks could descend, go under 33rd Street and then back up again. Potentially more significantly is the same for the rail line off 25thStreet and Idylwyld Drive. If the tracks started gently ramping down after the 25th Street crossing, they could pass right under the existing Warman Road to 2nd Avenue Connector. This would cause the underpass at 7th Avenue to be closed though but the train would regain its original height well before the bridge crossing. This should have been contemplated in the original North Downtown Plan. It might be possible to start this even sooner so the Idylwyld Drive and 25th Street intersection would be above the rail line traversing below.
I believe that oil pipelines are the only feasible way to transport oil products in the safest manner. I don’t want rampant oil production and, over time, I believe that our world will slowly move to alternatives. But for our own lifetimes, we have to acknowledge that oil and gas are here and are required for our lives to continue as we do. People who work in oil and gas are not our enemies just as people wanting more environmental improvements are not either. I do worry that if more pipelines are created, that our current rail car congestion around oil transportation will remain. Why would the oil and gas companies suddenly release their quota for rail transport in such a situation? I believe instead they would fill their pipelines and then keep their rail quotas just the same. I would push the Federal Government to put limits in place for this. Therefore, if extra capacity pipelines are brought on line, that at least some of their rail capacity will be permanently reduced accordingly, but not necessarily 1 for 1. This would allow for the movement of oil by rail in smaller volumes but would also ensure that our own farming, mining and manufacturing businesses get reasonable capacity back. It always needs to be remembered that oil can and does move by pipeline, but that option is not available for other commodities such as grain, potash, and manufacturing. I would also ask that the Federal Government mandate that no bonus system be allowed for the movement of these products otherwise oil and gas will always override our own local commodities to gain unfair priority to market access.
A larger plan is required to find a way to prepare for all rail traffic to leave the core of our city but we need to be understanding of the necessity for this transport and respect our local rail workers that do hard work to keep our economy moving.
I have previously sent Mayor Clark detailed drawings for the Warman Road to First Avenue connection proposal as well as the two rail line changes mentioned above. To date, neither Mayor Clark nor any City Official has responded to me. I posed the question to Mayor Clark at a public luncheon and he stated that the First Avenue connection was not being currently looked at. Considering that the City is contemplating a new downtown arena, perhaps they should look at traffic and rail issues first before diving into purchasing land for any proposed project? Prove me right or prove me wrong, but at least do something factual.
Rail Lines - Part B
I have already written earlier about rail lines cutting through our city. I used some of my past comments and design suggestions in that topic paper, but for the past months I have also been looking at a completely new way to look at dealing with rail lines. After some of my own research and consulting with very senior colleagues I know in mine engineering and geology, I am now prepared to mention this in the public.
The problem with our current rail issues is that too many politicians have put off dealing with it for far too long. In the last 20 years or more now, this issue is beyond what City Administration, the Mayor, or City Council can conceive alternates for. Ideally, the rail lines would completely vacate the interior of the city. Perhaps even both the CN and CP rail yards would also move much further out of the city limits.
Some of the weak proposals by City Administration and their expensive consultants cause the rail companies to have more limited operations. That is a non-starter for rail companies who are not obligated to take part in any agreement with our City. Also, moving the rail lines outside the city causes a lot of expense for overpasses and possibly more rail bridge crossings, depending on how effectively this is done. Having seen first hand the mess that BHP Billiton had trying to negotiate rail access into the Janzen site, this is a monumental task and would take decades with no clear plan or cost. That is assuming the rail companies finally decided that they wanted to also be part of this type of discussion. Again, that is a leap as well.
Creating trenches around the city is not a new idea but it also has huge negatives. You need to create deep trenches around and under roadways beside existing rail operations. Or you need so much buffer area that you can dig freely without the worry of undermining the rail line or the roadways. Sadly, we do not have that amount of usable space alongside our rail lines around the city.
There is an option that has gone unaddressed throughout all these decades. And that is to pick a starting point outside of the city at a safe distance beside the rail line, and then to gently dig down under the city and back up on the other side. No bridges, no disruptions of vehicle or rail traffic. A very predictable start and end point which could work for the rail companies to consider. This option would allow the CP rail yards in Sutherland and the CN rail yards in Montgomery to be removed and located outside of the city limits to a larger purpose-built site. Rail companies are hamstrung with the workable space they have for operations within the city just as the city is hamstrung with the result of this.
Give CN and CP the option to plan for new rail operations that look like what the 21st century might now require. Then each of these companies could operate without interruption, unnoticed under the city where they reconnect back to their own main lines where best served.
Such an infrastructure would be put in place first and, when fully operational, then the main line would divert to the tunnel and then the existing operations could be removed and redeveloped.
Trains have been in underground mining operations for about 150 years now. Most people know about trains that travel through mountains in Canada or elsewhere, but perhaps many do not consider that subway lines travel beneath large cities like Toronto, Montreal, and New York in sometimes very unstable ground conditions.
The old mining trains were steam driven off coal but there may also be some ventilation issues around our current diesel electric locomotives. These can be dealt with or perhaps fully electric shuttle locomotives can be looked at to pull trains through the tunnels where by they disconnect and the diesel electric units take the load beyond Saskatoon.
I am not trying to tell you I have every aspect carefully detailed out. But what I am here to promise you is that this is a viable option and it should be carefully considered before we spend the next decades on more endless talk with no real plan.
The rail tunnels that gently descend beneath the city would be created using a TBM (Tunnel Boring Machine) and this cost may actually be much smaller than trying to circumvent the entire city on the surface. As this unit digs, it then puts in place precast concrete rings for strength. There are massive TBM machines but realistically we would not require a unit that large for a single pass rail line. And I would propose a single pass rail line for this purpose.
It seems that people don’t believe that trains can tackle grade. But they can and they do everyday in Canada. How much grade, how fast is the train, how long is the train, how sharp are the curves and so much more come into play for all this to be determined. But trains travel through the mountain passes constantly and even up some of the terrain we have right here in Saskatchewan.
Every Mayoral candidate brags about how Saskatoon is a leader in mining, yet they fail to acknowledge that we have world class expertise in this city which can help solve this huge issue for our citizens and businesses.
Imagine what our city might look like with just spur lines to the chemical plants and the Viterra grain terminal. Consider all the inward looking infill development of the rail lines around 25th Street and the new police station, or what the existing rail yards in Sutherland and Montgomery might look like if completely redeveloped.
We have alternatives to look at. I am the leader to drive this discussion.
