Churchill washout cost Via $1.7M in revenue

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This article was published 15/10/2018 (2542 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — Via Rail estimates it lost almost $1.7 million in revenue in the seven months after the tracks to Churchill washed out in the spring of 2017.

Documents obtained through a freedom-of-information request show the Crown corporation believes it also saved $1.2 million by not running the full route from June to December 2017, making the net loss $500,000.

Tracks used by the Hudson Bay Railway washed out just north of Gillam on May 23, 2017, cutting off service to Churchill. The Free Press requested the internal analysis of the effect of the derailment on Via revenue. As of a year ago, Via Rail has operated a single return trip each week between Winnipeg and The Pas, twice weekly between The Pas and Thompson and three times a week between Thompson and Gillam.

The train used to run twice weekly from Winnipeg and three times a week from Thompson, linking remote northern Manitoba communities along the line, in addition to sending tourists and academics to Churchill, the “Polar Bear Capital of the World.”

The Winnipeg-Churchill route has only lost 17 per cent of its operable track. The remaining part still connects Indigenous and Métis trappers, as well as mine workers visiting their families across the North. But Via says 81 per cent of its 2016 revenue along that entire line came from trips that went beyond Gillam (almost all to Churchill).

Via Rail estimated 9,278 one-way trips would have taken place to or from Churchill from June to December 2017, based on 2016 traffic. The corporation believes it has saved $1.2 million in expenses as a result of cancellations.

Half of that money would have gone to salaries and benefits. Twenty per cent of the estimated costs were for service charges for using CN and Omnitrax tracks (CN owns the tracks up to The Pas, while Omnitrax owned the rest). Via also saved costs by not having to buy as many meals and drinks to sell, and it didn’t have to pay for hotel rooms in Churchill for its staff.

Via had ended its contract for a staff person at the Churchill station, but has started the process to reinstate the position.

Earlier this year, the Free Press reported, for the first 12 months after the May 2017 washout, Via had refunded 6,110 one-way fares along the route, totalling $938,251.

On Aug. 31, Ottawa helped transfer Omnitrax’s railway to the local consortium Arctic Gateway, which said it planned to repair the washed-out tracks and resume service to Churchill before winter.

Workers completed repairing the tracks over the Thanksgiving weekend, but the firm stressed it needs to thoroughly assess the line before it can restore service to Churchill. It’s not yet known if that will happen before winter.

Transport Canada wrote recently that railways are responsible for the safety of their infrastructure, equipment and operations, while the regulator audits and inspects railways to determine whether they comply with rules and regulations.

The department has been in touch with the owners “about its repairs to, and inspections of, this portion of the line, although Transport Canada is not required to authorize the resumption of service,” spokesman Pierre Manoni said.

A railway worker was killed in a Sept. 13 derailment west of Thompson, hundreds of kilometres south of the rail line that was damaged in 2017.

That site will require its own repairs, though the ground is more stable than the permafrost closer to Churchill.

Provincial and federal staff had left the scene by Oct. 11, suggesting Arctic Gateway and its contractors are leading the cleanup.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca

The derailment leaked diesel fuel into the Mitishto River, which the province’s Sustainable Development department investigated. It wrote last week that the cleanup continues, but “environmental impacts appear to be localized and contamination has been contained.”

Provincial and federal staff had left the scene by Oct. 11, suggesting Arctic Gateway and its contractors are leading the cleanup.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca

Via Rail documents on Churchill revenue and costs