Posted on 09/11/2014 5:36:45 AM PDT by thackney
Senators and shippers complained Wednesday that widespread delays in freight rail shipments are hurting a wide array of industries and driving some companies out of business, and they expressed doubt that the railroad companies are doing all they can to fix the problem.
The delays, which escalated late last year and continued through the spring and summer, appear to be the result of too few rail cars and too much demand from shippers, officials representing the agriculture, auto and chemical industries told a hearing of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. Lawmakers displayed a photo of a giant mound of wheat standing in the open because North Dakota farmers cant get a railroad company to ship it.
Shipping rates are 90 percent higher than they were in 2002, but service has drastically diminished, said Calvin Dooley, president of the American Chemistry Council.
DOH!
[Too much demand for rail oil cars since the Keystone pipeline was blocked by Obama.]
The government solution will be to ban rail cars carrying oil - for the good of the country.
Kip’s Ma will testify tomorrow.
Minnesota Power is closing four of their coal burners because the BN can’t deliver. Too busy shipping crude.
What does that mean?
Yep. Rail lines from ND east have never been busier. Obama supports policies withou understanding their intent or consequences.
https://www.aar.org/newsandevents/Freight-Rail-Traffic/Documents/2014-09-04-railtraffic.pdf
Thanks for that, I had not heard of it.
Its taking BNSF two to three times longer than usual to get shipments of coal to the Northland, Rudeck said. The utilitys coal stockpiles are less than half of where they should be.
The units affected include the two at Laskin Energy Center in Hoyt Lakes, and two of the three units at Taconite Harbor Energy Center on the North Shore. No one will be laid off, Rudeck said; workers affected by the idling will focus on maintenance projects.
Pat Mullen, Minnesota Powers vice president of marketing and corporate communications, told Wisconsin Public Radio that this is the first time the utility has had to idle plants because of coal shipping problems.
BNSF officials have told Minnesota Power that the delays are because of weather and system congestion, Rudeck said.
Wonder when the Atlas Shrugged reference would pop. It took me a minute to remember Kipling Chalmers.
I’m going to see part 3 this weekend. My Kickstart soundtrack was obtained yesterday and I like it a lot so far.
Granted the movie trilogy has problems but at least it’s something.
If you want to cut to the chase,
Dagny gets a phone call from Minnesota. The rail cars set to haul that states wheat have not shown up, and the massive harvest will rot in its silos. People there are beginning to feel genuine terror. The caller says that once he hangs up, he is going to become a deserter. Dagnys investigation within the railroad shows that every necessary form has been filled out, but the grain cars are not going to Minnesota. She finds that the paperwork has been falsified, and Cuffy Meigs is sending the cars to Louisiana to carry Emma Chalmers soybeans, now deemed more important to the government bureaucracy than wheat.
Emma Chalmers, Kip Chalmers' mother.
I think you will find that it is an “Atlas Shrugged” reference...
Why are senators “chiding” railroads? Do we live in some fascist planned economy where private businesses report to their government masters? . . . . . . . . . . . . . Don’t answer that . . . . .
No wonder I didn’t understand it. Thanks.
Thanks.
He really is singlehandedly turning this into the last chapter of Atlas Shrugged.
But maybe part of that 5% would completely alleviate the crisis for the other companies?
No doubt it plays a role. But when the major complaint seems to be delay in grain shipments, and the increase in grain rail cars is more than twice the increase in oil rail cars, I don’t think oil is the only problem.
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