From Trucks to RailwaysTwo years ago, members of First Nations blocked the country's main railways for 3 months. The Law of Emergency Measures (referring the Law of War Measures) has never been enforced.
Now, for those who say the convoy in Ottawa is a night to the economy, here's an easy-to-do calculation:
- A railway wagon equals about 3 semi-trailers
- A wagon measuring average 60' long and can fit up to 86'
- The average length of a railway convoy is 9,000' and can go up to 18,000'.
– According to Statistics Canada, a commercial railway convoy consists on average of 114 wagons.
- In Canada, the average railway traffic plays in 140,000 and 160,000 wagons per week.
So, using data on average 140,000 wagons per week, we're talking about traffic of 602,000 wagons per month. For 3 months 1,806,000 wagons. Like a wagon equates to about 3 semi-trailers, here we talk about the equivalent of 5,418,000 semi-trailors of goods that have been paralyzed or seen their traffic interrupted for 3 months.
3 months not 3 weeks. And meanwhile, Trudeau was doing what he does best: a big nothing less useful. He mostly did not freeze their bank assets, nor send the anti-riot to chase them away.
I hope the world of transport remembers this...