WINNIPEG, Man. — The Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) has ruled against Ferroequus Railway’s application to run Canadian National (CN) lines to haul grain to Prince Rupert.

The decision comes after a public hearing, which ran from Apr. 29 to May 8 in Winnipeg.

The CTA ruled that in order to grant running rights to Ferroequus, there would have to be evidence that CN is abusing the market.

“In the case at hand, Ferroequus has not established the existence of a rate or service problem in the relevant markets, nor has it established that the granting of running rights would eliminate or alleviate any lack of adequate and effective competition,” the CTA ruled.

The agency also found that granting running rights to Ferroequus would have a negative impact on many participants in the grain handling and transportation system, that Ferroequus’ business plan was overly simplistic, the proposed traffic interchange in Canmore is not practical and inefficiencies would be imposed on the grain handling system.

Ferroequus had argued directing more grain to the Prince Rupert, B.C. port would alleviate pressure from the Port of Vancouver, which is currently at a standstill due to a labor shortage with grain handlers.

The CTA states “The issue of the efficiency of the grain handling and transportation system is important because t affects the competitiveness of the Canadian grain industry in world markets and ultimately affects grain producers and other system participants, who pay for inefficiencies in the system through lower net returns, lost sales or both.”