The president of Boundary Trail Railway Company remains optimistic about the future for the shortline and the use of producer cars despite the federal government's plans to remove the Canadian Wheat Board's single desk.

BTRC has operated 35 kilometres of track from Binney Corner, west of Manitou, to Morden since 2009.

Until now, the CWB has enabled shortlines like BTRC to use producer cars by securing car supply and arranging their transportation with the major railways, and by ensuring they will be accepted at port terminals.

"We're pretty confident the government will find other ways to protect us," says Kevin Friesen, who farms in the Manitou area. "We're working with the government on a few different levels, hoping they protect producer cars in another way if they decide to get rid of the Wheat Board."

Friesen says they have two main concerns: port access and service from the major railways.

"We're hoping the government will maybe guarantee a way that some of the ports would have to unload producer cars," he says. "Right now, it's the Canadian Grain Commission that is actually protecting producer cars. We realize the Board does order a lot of cars for us but there are maybe ways the Canadian Grain Commission could force companies such as CN and CP to accept and deliver producer cars."

He says both the federal and provincial governments stand to benefit from protecting shortlines.

"We really feel that the government is saving a lot of money by having grain run in producer cars. They built a new highway beside our short stretch of track that cost 18 million dollars, and we know we're saving a lot of traffic from running down it," he says. "Perhaps there's even a way of paying producers to use producer cars rather than having it travel down provincial or federal roads."

"There are some ways that they could make it a lot better for producer cars. It could be better, or it could be worse. We're just hoping they choose the avenue that makes it better," says Friesen. "If the government listens to some of our requests, it could be very positive."

"They're allowing us to talk to them and give them suggestions, so we're just hoping they take them."

Boundary Trail shipped around 500 producer cars - 90 percent of which were CWB grains - in the 2010-11 crop year.