Railways serving port facilities in the Canadian Lower Mainland are failing to provide prompt and reliable service, harming the port’s international reputation and imposing extra costs and risks upon customers, according to a Port Metro Vancouver submission to Transport Canada.
The rail system moving goods in and out of the port works “reasonably well” on a broad level, but fails customers and stakeholders on a “day-to-day, week-to-week and month-to-month” basis within the confines of terminals, Port Metro Vancouver said in a recent report to the transportation agency’s rail freight service review panel. … The port said that 84 per cent of its rail customers surveyed between November 2008 and February 2010 are either dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with rail service within the port.