Railways that cross provincial borders are federally regulated and fall under the jurisdiction of Transport Canada. If a railway line is not federally regulated, it falls under the jurisdiction of the province and must operate in accordance with The Railway Act.
Provincially regulated railways include short line railways, private industrial railways and heritage passenger railways.
There are 13 short line railways in Saskatchewan that collectively own and operate more than 2,000 km of track. Short line railways provide rail service to many shippers in Saskatchewan and collect and deliver their shippers’ traffic to CN Rail and CPKC.
Saskatchewan Railway Network Map
Railway shippers often own and operate railway infrastructure for the purpose of loading or unloading their products into railway cars. These privately owned industrial railways are also provincially regulated railways. There are approximately 80 facilities in Saskatchewan that are provincially regulated industrial railways.
The Ministry of Highways requires all provincially regulated railways to submit and follow a railway Safety Management Plan to ensure safe railway operations.
The ministry has also implemented regular safety inspection and audit programs to ensure railway infrastructure meets safety standards and ensure railway operators follow the rules and standards in their Safety Management Plans.
Provincially regulated railways are also required to apply for authorizations to build or expand railways in Saskatchewan. In addition, railways must report railway related accidents and incidents.
In order to provide additional guidance on the requirements under The Railway Act, the ministry has created a series of forms, guidelines and standards to outline the basic safety requirements for railway infrastructure, operations, expansion and accident reporting.
Provincial Railway Guidelines, Standards and Forms:
- Applications to Construct, Open or Operate a Railway
- Crossing Maintenance Responsibilities of Road Authorities and Railways
- Extreme Weather and Fire Prevention Plan Guideline
- Fit for Duty and Training
- Grounding and Bonding Standards
- Industrial Railway Registration Form
- Low Usage Locomotive Guidelines
- Public Grade Crossing Applications
- Public Road Crossing Standards
- Rail Clearances
- Railway Insurance Guidelines
- Provincial Railway Accident Form
- Safety Management Plans
- Saskatchewan Track Safety Standards
- Utility Crossings