01/05/05 Union Pacific raising its freight rates

We have been telling you about problems that Idaho grower-shippers are having getting railroad cars or trucks. Union Pacific Railroad spokesman John Bromley says there are a couple of reasons for that. BROMLEY "We're importing more and more of our finished goods and exporting raw materials which is a complete reversal of what was happening historically in transportation. And this past year we had a huge increase in traffic from Asia, particularly China that comes in primarily through Southern California and goes by rail to be distributed across the country." That's one reason UP has raised or is raising rates on all commodities. BROMLEY "What we want to do is use that improved revenue to reinvest in the railroad to buy more equipment, more locomotives and new track." Higher rates may drive away some customers and help ease some of the demand on the 48 hundred refrigerated cars that UP already owns. BROMLEY "We've upgraded about two thousand of those and we bought another 500 just this past year and we're expecting to buy an additional one thousand new mechanical cars this year and upgrade close to another thousand cars." Some of the higher rates are already in effect and shippers face the double whammy of a shortage of trucks to get their ag products moved outside the state. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott