West-central Saskatchewan is home to two of the thirteen Saskatchewan short line railways set to receive upgrades in 2024. Through the Government of Saskatchewan’s Short Line Railway Improvement Program (SRIP), part of the funding earmarked for transportation in the 2024 Saskatchewan budget was allocated to help out short line rail in Saskatchewan.
Big Sky Rail, Delisle received $87,035. It serves the area near Saskatoon, but also inside the Eston and Elrose region. The other local railway receiving funding was the Great Sandhills Railway in the Swift Current, Leader region, granted a total of $43,089.
Those numbers come out of the $530,000 total being invested, announced by Highways Minister Lori Carr on Friday.
“Short line railways play an important role in getting Saskatchewan’s food, fuel and fertilizer on their journeys to worldwide markets, which helps keep our export-based economy strong to sustain our quality of life,” Carr said. “We are proud to invest in this transportation sector as it is essential to keeping our great and growing province strong.”
In total throughout Saskatchewan, the province has 13 short line railways, operating on 2,123 kilometres of track. More comments on the funding from Western Canadian Short Line Railway Association President Andrew Glastetter can be found through the government release HERE.