Grain Piles Up, Waiting for a Ride, as Trains Move North Dakota Oil

[mahatmakanejeeves]

First, the disclaimer. I own shares of stock in rail companies. I do not own shares of BNSF, as Warren Buffett bought it lock, stock, and barrel.

Hat tip, "Lackawanna484" at Trainorders: Grain producers on the war path

Grain Piles Up, Waiting for a Ride, as Trains Move North Dakota Oil

U.S.
By RON NIXON AUG. 25, 2014

FARGO, N.D. — The furious pace of energy exploration in North Dakota is creating a crisis for farmers whose grain shipments have been held up by a vast new movement of oil by rail, leading to millions of dollars in agricultural losses and slower production for breakfast cereal giants like General Mills.
....

Railroads have long been the backbone of North Dakota’s transportation system and the most dependable way for farmers to move crops — to ports in Portland, Ore., Seattle and Vancouver, from which the bulk of the grain is shipped across the Pacific to Asia; and to East Coast ports like Albany, from which it is shipped to Europe. ... But reports the railroads filed with the federal government show that for the week that ended Aug. 22, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway* — North Dakota’s largest railroad, owned by the billionaire Warren E. Buffett — had a backlog of 1,336 rail cars waiting to ship grain and other products. Another railroad, Canadian Pacific, had a backlog of nearly 1,000 cars.
....

This month, federal Agriculture Department officials said they were particularly concerned that Canadian Pacific would not be able to fulfill nearly 30,000 requests from farmers and others for rail cars before October. As a result, North Dakota’s congressional delegation and lawmakers in Minnesota and South Dakota have called on the Surface Transportation Board, which oversees the nation’s railroads, to step up pressure on the companies.

“This rail backlog is a national problem,” Senator Heidi Heitkamp, Democrat of North Dakota, said in an interview. “The inability of farmers to get these grains to market is not only a problem for agriculture, but for companies that produce cereals, breads and other goods.”

An oil train rolled east through Fargo, N.D. Grain shipments have been delayed as oil has taken up freight space on the railways, leading to millions of dollars in agricultural losses. Credit Dan Koeck for The New York Times

That's the Broadway crossing, with Main Avenue on the other side of the tracks. An eastbound train is going from right to left in the picture. The Amtrak station is a half block to the right. The locomotives might already be in Minnesota, off to the left of the scene.



Rail cars being loaded with corn near Hillsboro. Railways deny they favor oil over grain. Credit Dan Koeck for The New York Times

You have to look closely, but you can see that the worker is tied off to an anchorage. It's an OSHA thing.

* As someone pointed out at Trainorders, it is the BNSF Railway now:

The creation of BNSF started with the formation of a holding company, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation on 22 September 1995. This new holding company then purchased the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (often called the "Santa Fe&quot and Burlington Northern Railroad, and formally merged the railways into the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway on 31 December 1996. On 24 January 2005, the railroad's name was officially changed to "BNSF Railway," using the initials of its original name.

[Keefer]

1. I can hear it now:

"If we build another pipeline, we could use the trains."

[MrNJ]

2. I can hear it now:

If we stop consuming energy, we could use the trains.

Of course the trains will have to run on the Holy Spirit.

[Historic NY]

3. Can't eat oil, folks.

[pscot]

4. Northwest fruit growers had to wait for

the same damn train.