Ag Still Waiting for Much Needed Rail Cars

The National Grain and Feed Association is monitoring the rail service problem that’s happening across the country.  NGFA President Randy Gordon says his group has been speaking with Burlington Northern Santa Fe rail officials and hope to speak soon with Canadian Pacific rail leaders. He says BNSF is trying to catch up on rail cars and bring service up to speed.
Gordon: “BSNF is putting a lot of money into its railroad in building double track and trying to enhance its purchases of locomotives and hiring of crews. But it is just taking a long time to rebuild or invest in railroad to get it to a point where it can handle the surge of demand for business from different kinds of commodities and products.”
Gordon says those products include everything from coal to crude oil, ag products, ethanol and propane. He says not only is BNSF and CP part of the problem but so are railroads in the East, the Norfolk Southern and CSX. He says the rail problem is long term and there may need to be more involvement from the Surface Transportation Board
Gordon: “From a NGFA standpoint, we basically said that we don’t want a priority for agriculture but we don’t want to see agriculture disadvantaged. So, if carriers are taking on new business from oil or any other sector and agriculture is still waiting for back orders to be filled and can’t get new car orders placed and filled — that’s a real problem.”
Gordon says it’s important railroads catch up on needed rail cars before taking on any new business.