09/08/08 Eliminating the Railroad Squeeze

Eliminating the Railroad Squeeze. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. We have talked in the past about the trouble of getting your crop to market and new legislation would help alleviate the squeeze that many producers feel from the railroad. The Railroad Anti-Trust Enforcement Act would put an end to old rules that allow freight railroads to avoid antitrust laws. Exemptions to the current laws put the squeeze on many of the nation's farmers. WOLFF: Farmers have to get the things they grow from their farms to markets. That's not always close. Rail lines provide one way for farmers to move their products, but some farmers live where there is only one rail line. In those circumstances the railroads have the upper hand. American Farm Bureau policy specialist Pat Wolff says the legislation is a simple matter of fairness. WOLFF: There are rules in this country that protect people from monopolies. They're called anti-trust laws, but in the current situation railroads are exempt from some of the anti-trust provisions, therefore making it harder for farmers and ranchers to take action when they're being hurt. Wolff says railroads should have to compete with other modes of transportation. WOLFF: There are alternative ways for farmers to get their products to market. There are trains. There are barges. There are trucks, but with the soaring cost of fuel truck transportation is more and more expensive. Farmers should be able to shift to the least cost alternative, but because of the rules that railroads operate under they have farmers over the barrel. There's really no competition between the different forms of transportation. Harvest season is right around the corner. So this issue is high in the minds of farmers. Immediate action is needed and congress needs to address the issue. It's hard to imagine in this day of high energy costs that moving products by rail would be more cost effective but Wolff that's only partially true. WOLFF: For many industries in this country, moving their products by rail is the least expensive and best way to move their products, but that's not true for agricultural producers. Because of the exemptions that the railroads have, they can sometimes charge farmers really high rates to ship their products. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.