Editor:
It's all about ships, trains and trucks ... and profits their owners reap by minimizing the costs of moving containers.
Port Metro Vancouver (Deltaport) - limited to offshore movement of containers between ships, trucks and trains - is not the ultimate on-shore decision maker.
According to a Transport Canada report on the Use of Containers in Canada, "Local drayage by truck can usually compete with rail up to 500 miles away..." Data I find reports that containers moved between Deltaport and B.C. destinations do indeed go by truck. To or from places further east, they go by rail.
Both CP and CN have intermodal terminals in the Lower Mainland where containers are loaded or unloaded if needed. Additional terminals require increased switching and costs. Railways do not encourage additional new intermodal container terminals unless they have a substantial volume or can attract specific destination volumes.
Where whole trainloads from a single origin to a single destination can be achieved, the railways' costs decrease. A number of such "unit" trains are required to load a single ship.
So why is Delta promoting a new terminal in Ashcroft? According to the Ashcroft Terminal website: "Their proposed inland container terminal (ICT) near the South Central Interior community is being touted as a first step in capturing an increased share of Asian container traffic and, according to the project's proponents, could be up and running in months instead of years if the province and related stakeholders would commit to work with its principals."
It's understandable that remote and isolated Ashcroft yearns to profit from those long container trains rumbling through town. They could add a bit of shipping cost and capture some jobs and tax revenues.
But could they also cause containers to or from points east to travel to Deltaport by truck instead of train, causing a huge increase in Lower Mainland highway congestion?
Why is Delta promoting jobs, business and tax revenue for a town 330 kilometres up the Thompson River ... development that railroads likely reject and that could increase our traffic? Is it because we hope to divert a perceived threat from 600 acres of Delta's blueberries?
I find container movement data a complex and commercially difficult subject. My understanding is surely limited and possibly flawed, but I see no realistic container terminal threat to Delta's blueberries.
I suggest Delta council secure a thorough understanding of the subject and the motivation of private sector players before promoting a solution that could harm us.
As the saying goes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
Ed Ries
