Farmers in urgent need of action: “Unacceptable” for railways to download costs onto farmers, rural landowners

By Drew Spoelstra, President, Ontario Federation of Agriculture

Several years ago, Transport Canada updated its safety standards for federally regulated railway crossings. A deadline of November 28, 2024 was set for all crossings to meet the new Grade Crossings Regulations.

It’s fast approaching and farmers and rural landowners with private crossings on their properties are finding themselves facing hefty bills for both the mandated safety upgrades and their annual maintenance costs. That’s because rail companies, who have long borne these costs, are now stepping away from their financial responsibilities and looking to shift them onto someone else.

A similar situation is happening with costs for drainage infrastructure. In recent years, federally regulated railways have advised municipalities across Ontario that they will no longer be responsible for any costs of drainage infrastructure under the Ontario Drainage Act. Proper drainage is essential to managing water on farmland and keeping soils productive; crops can’t grow in flooded or waterlogged areas.

So, what’s the big deal?

First, a bit of context. Private railway crossings are those where there is no public use of the crossing, and the same individual or farm business owns the land on both sides of the tracks. The crossings were put in by the rail companies when rail lines were originally built so that landowners wouldn’t be cut off from their own land as a result of the tracks going in.

There are a significant number of farms across Ontario with active railway lines passing through their land, which means they have a private level crossing that is their only way to access fields on the opposite side of the tracks.

Safety upgrades and ongoing maintenance of private railway crossings have always been performed by the railways, at the railways’ expense. Now, in cases without pre-existing agreements, the railways have decided to make rural landowners and farmers pay instead and are threatening to remove existing and active private railway crossings if they don’t.

At the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, we are hearing from our members of cases where farmers have had their crossing removed by the railway without notice, or that they’ve received 30-day notices of the closing of their crossings.