The Canadian Transportation Agency on Wednesday announced that it has found that the Canadian National Railway Company (CN)'s revenues for the movement of Western grain exceeded its revenue cap for crop year 2004-2005.

The Canadian Pacific Railway Company (CP)'s revenues from grain transportation were below its cap for the same period.

CN's grain revenue of $305,788,835 was $118,714 above its revenue cap of $305,670,121, while CP's grain revenue of $323,068,715 was $513,061 below its revenue cap of $323,581,776.

In accordance with the Canada Transportation Act and the Railway Company Pay Out of Excess Revenue for the Movement of Grain Regulations, CN now has 30 days to pay the above-noted excess amount, in addition to a five per cent penalty, to the Western Grains Research Foundation (WGRF).

The revenue cap applies to the movement of grain from Prairie origins to terminals at Vancouver, Prince Rupert, Thunder Bay and Churchill. Crop year 2004-2005 is the Agency's fifth year for revenue cap determinations and marks the second consecutive year a railway has exceeded the maximum revenue entitlement. For the previous crop year (2003-2004), the Agency found that CP had exceeded its revenue cap by $321,912.

The current revenue cap regime for the movement of Western grain by a prescribed railway company (currently CN and CP) has been in effect since August 1, 2000; it replaced the former rate scale regime for such movements. Since that time, the Agency has been required to determine each railway company's revenue cap annually and whether each cap has been exceeded by the railway company. In the course of establishing Western grain revenue, the Agency examined detailed railway submissions of grain traffic and revenue information.