What a way to run a railroad. Agriweek Mar 2

[TOM4CWB]

Sawfly,

Our government truly does want a resolution to the service deficiencies in our grain transportation system... your denial of this fact will not change the urgency of it being addressed... nor the importance of properly informing the right and proper agencies of real problems you encounter. Each one of us... who individually make the effort to submit our issues... to the CTA... provide a counterbalance more weighty than that of any one of the hired 100 plus paid lobby railers on Parliament Hill today.

WE MUST submit real and well thought out complaints about how the lack of service... hampers and hurts each one of our farms!!!

Or the Great Hunter... and his 100 plus paid Hunters... WILL WIN.

Is that what you want???

[TOM4CWB]

OK BP;

"What if the govt did not own any cars?
What if there were no rate cap?

I'm a complete laymen but what if we had a constitution that doesn't rely on the Supreme Court for every tiny thing?
Right to work laws?
Anti Combines Acts? "

1) "a constitution that doesn't rely on the Supreme Court for every tiny thing" Sorry... Pierre E Trudeau messed up our chance to properly reform property rights and the common law in Canada. I see no way out of this rut... or coffin... whatever you wish to call it.
2) "Anti Combines Acts"... I could see a great danger in the Liberals and ND's in allowing the railways to go together... Goodale gave the CNR to the US share holders... at 10 cents on the dollar. Now the great Hunter has formed a JV between CN and CP... through his leadership... few understand what is going on in management in our RR head offices. Collusion and reform of management structures... at the highest levels... to assure the most profitable levels possible... at the least cost and services.
3) Right to work... We have the right to work all right... our farms and generations of our families... working to build future profits of RR kingdoms Hunter is building.

Why take the rate cap off... have the great hunter take 30 percent more... at lower service levels? Please explain how that will help anyone but Hunters bankers???

Sell the rail cars to the railway... when they are perfectly good... are worth very little except to us as grain farmers... like $5/t... x 20mt... x2 for domestic arbitrage... plus higher cost for value added shippers of our down stream produce in any event.

BP... review your wishes... Hunter is watching.... you made his day!!!

[farmaholic]

Somewhere on Agriville I am on record as identifying the hoppercar maintenance overcharges....

Also admit there was shipping problems at times with the old marketing regime in place but in my mind it was better than in the new marketing environment.

The governments have powers to take away the
CWB monopoly yet seem unwilling to do anything to improve true competition amonst a duopoly RR transportation scheme and a collusionary grain handling/buying.

You got your open market, function in it.
There was a bit of a producer advocate that got
axed without any regard for the consequences for doing so. The old regime made mistakes but there was some semblance of order to things.

Wmoebis mentioned the reduced "role" of the CGC.

Arbitrage? Load the trucks Tom. You're free to take it in any direction as far as you want! Load empty seacans. Put it in 1 lb bags and sell it on the big city street corner.

In my opinion things went to absolute shit for us when the Cons got their majority. Instead of building on what already existed they choose to tear down and let the market dictate...how well has it worked?

MONOPOLIES NEED REGULATING. **** freetrade
and nafta. Do what is best for the country and its citizens not Corporate interests. Since when should Canada(and by that I mean its people) be a puppet of foreign governments and Corporations?

I am not saying the market shouldn't have been opened up but if I could I would hit the reset/restore button to July 31, 2012 and start over

[TOM4CWB]

Dear Hopper,

2012/13 was near perfect arbitrage with plenty of freight capacity in any direction needed. Prices were acceptable and margins reasonable.

Aug 2013 to Dec was just fine on prices and reasonable basis... then the great Hunter sells a slug of locomotive power and lays off a whack of folks who maintained the power. No rocket science needed... to predict the result... our cars and grain were stranded... nothing at all to do with CWB Aug 1 2012 freedom project.

Ritz left enough rope for the the CWB to hang itself... the the old CWB board of Directors made full and complete jumps off the deep end... with the rope securely and tightly tied... by each other... around each other's necks... and they took great pride taking turns pushing themselves off the deck of their own sinking ships.

Personal responsibility lays with each former
CWB farmer director... that was involved in buying the CWB ships and failing to open up freight arbitrage and providing some opportunity for marketing arbitrage in CWB grains.

We have a CTA service review of the rail system right now...

Make your views known to the correct agency of what it is... you need the CTA/gov to do... to provide acceptable reform to the transport system...

I am here merely to bring the message... please take the full and proper opportunity to express your and your farms needs...

I will personally get through this debacle...as will my farm/family... as will my community. As will you I expect.

Our family has plenty of trucks... we have plenty of opportunity to use those trucks... load railcars... ship grain wherever and to whomever needs our produce...

Do the right thing... please... and I will do the same!

If you need any help.... let us know!

Calling each other dishonest names... simply exemplifies the weakness of our position
we all need to be a part of the solution...
All the best!
Please write a submission to the CTA... and have a great day!!!

[agchat]

Come on guys leave Tom alone. He knows what is best for us. I am not a gifted writer like him, and pars, so my two cent jib jabs on here mean nothing. Lets face it, when some people are right, they are right. Tom is right in his mind because to him we are ALL ****ING STUPID. Yup instead of axing the cwb he should of fought for changes in the cwb, but no axe it that is the way to go. That way it fits into my life plan better, screw the thoughts of any one else, cause they are ALL ****ING STUPID. Now as he reads this he thinks, " Oh shut up agchat, **** YOU ARE STUPID.

[Oliver88]

It would be nice to be setup for NH3 storage.
Not sure what red tape a guy would have to deal with?

[SASKFARMER3]

Looked at buying a bullet back in the 80S having it moved to our yard from the town it was in. That was the cheap part then the inspections etc and every so many year inspections. Just became to big of a cost. Also you really don't store that much.

[bucket]

Tom

What do you want? Money for your failed court case attempt with merchant.

Maybe you haven't been reading things lately but the open market in canada is dysfunctional.

Your buddies in Ottawa have no interest in fixing it either.

They are going to get board seats - are you?

And to be clear, I doubt your conservative mp gives two shits about what happens at your farm unless he is looking for campaign money.

[Hamloc]

Store 2/3 of my fertilizer now hoping to put up more this year bins usually pay for themselves in a year. It is interesting to note the Urea price in New Orleans is now down to 280 a short ton down from over 330 in January which translates to a fair value in western canada of 515 a tonne. The vaseline jar is almost empty!!!!

[LEP]

Any attempt to make the market efficient requires infrastructure investment.

Fert storage is a start.

Fert storage on rail is better.

Fert storage and buying offshore is better again.

Not all that different from grain.

[grassfarmer]

LOL, start writing letters to your Con MP. As usual Tom is so far behind he thinks he is ahead. Lapped again.

[wmoebis]

Help me understand.
Why don't farmers sign contracts with fert companies for agreed price for delivery on an agreed month then the fert company store it until you are ready to pick it up?

Just like the grain system does.
Why do we have to supply bins for the fert Co's and the grain Co's and be their bankers too?

[bucket]

Grassfarmer


My MP David Anderson is already having letter to the editor pissing matches with other party candidates and the left constituents.

Good hey? Ignore the problems they are pointing out, to serve out a public service announcement from the conservatives through a letter to the editor.

I call the Ottawa office to get their opinion on the discrepancies about the transportation reports. They say they will get back to you but never do.

Constituency office pretends they know nothing and defers to Ottawa.

Must be good to ignore constituents?

For those that will vote conservative this time, at least ask what the **** they are doing about this dysfunctional system in marketing they implemented and their intent on getting both the railways and graincos from blaming each other while both profit at the expense of farmers.

[MBgrower]

Tom, nothing from stopping you from owning a railway company. Become a shareholder, organise fellow like minded farmers and individuals, create an investment company with a sole purpose to gain controlling interest in cn and cp. Railways have been a great investment in my portfoli.

[bucket]

Mbgrower

At what point do the railways realize they are losing money by not investing in themselves to handle more freight?

And at what point do governments realize they can't afford to rebuild public highways that don't need the heavy traffic on them in the first place?