Western Railroad Discussion > Grain vs Oil via Rail

An interesting article in the New Your Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/26/us/grain-piles-up-waiting-for-a-ride-as-trains-move-north-dakota-oil.html?emc=eta1&_r=0

Cheers,
Jack



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/26/14 15:57 by africansteam.

This is talked about below in another thread.

It's funny how old this tune is, and how it never changes. I often read books about when railroads were being pushed into grain producing regions. No sooner would a railroad arrive at a location than there would be complaints the railroad wasn't supplying enough cars to move the crop before it would spoil (get infested with bugs). The long and short of the issues is that the railroad cannot economically support a huge fleet of cars that may only be used during a very short shipping season. Farmers need to invest in storage options (elevators) or their own railcars. Several elevator companies tried to buy their own fleets of railcars back in the late 70's and early 80's, but eventually sold those cars to the railroads. That said, BNSF and CP really got hammered in the last season. It really wasn't the oil traffic that slowed them down, it was the huge harvest and a bitterly cold winter that brought trains to a grinding halt.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

When I first read the subject line I thought; who or what is Garin?

Then I read the link and realized it was a typo---Sheesh!

Dick

Ted,

Yes, the railroads told the elevators they needed to provide their own cars then park them between seasons so they did just that. Well, the rate the railroad can charge to ship grain in shipper provided cars is lower than when the grain went in railroad provided cars. The railroads complained they could no longer make money hauling grain in customer provided cars. So the railroads bought more cars, changed the rules so now shippers must use railroad owned cars or face additional charges and fees if the shippers use their own cars.

The extended shipping season has reduced the down time with the equipment but the railroads whine they are forced to purchase too many cars and the shippers can say the railroads don't provide enough empties in a timely manner.

Increased train velocity would help.

Posted from Windows Phone OS 7

2ebright Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> When I first read the subject line I thought; who
> or what is Garin?
>
> Then I read the link and realized it was a
> typo---Sheesh!
>
> Dick

Thanks, Dick.

Fixed.

Cheers,
Jack

And what about the export elevators? Last Friday I crused by TEMCo in Tacoma, WA. No ship loading and no ships waiting to load. Now if there is nothing to put the grain into whats the point of picking it up in ND? I dont see this as all the fault of the railroads but some real investigative reporting would be nice.
Roger Beckett

up833 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> And what about the export elevators? Last Friday
> I crused by TEMCo in Tacoma, WA. No ship loading
> and no ships waiting to load. Now if there is
> nothing to put the grain into whats the point of
> picking it up in ND? I dont see this as all the
> fault of the railroads but some real investigative
> reporting would be nice.
> Roger Beckett


Not sure exactly which elevators have been affected by the 2 year long strike in the NW.

http://koin.com/2014/08/26/longshore-workers-ok-northwest-grain-deal/

The union workers go back on duty tomorrow after approving a deal to 2018.

TEMCO reached a separate deal for Tacoma and Kalama. United Grain in Portland I believe was the elevator that locked out the union. Then the new elevator in Vancouver wanted some competing union..not Longshoremen. I think that settled also. This is the time of year that some elevators shut down for annual maintaince.
Roger B

My understanding of this is the new elevator in Vancouver went with a different union and
and recieved a much better labor rate.

The old elevators were using the new elevator's contract as leverage to lower their costs.

The other elevator in Vancouver locked out the union 2 years ago and had some interesting conflicts.

What is really irksome is the reason this was settled is the State and Federal grain inspectors
decided to stop inspecting and certifying out going grain shipments because they felt in danger
crossing the union picket lines because the Washington State Police decided to stop escorting the
inspectors across the picket lines...


The grain elevators offered to fly the inspectors in...