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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by ValorStorm I will say that Montana wheat growers are their own worst enemies. Lack of rail competition is a legitimate concern here. But wheat would be more expensive to ship from Montana even with better competition. Distances are just greater here. Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma wheat is much closer to its terminals and its market. (Texas and Alaska could be as big as all Canada, and Montanans would STILL have a longer school-bus ride.) And our grain storage options - compared to the prairie states - are few, small, and far between.[/quote] I take it geography is not your strong suit! Montana is closer to Portland (THE major Pacific Rim export area) than Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma, and most US hard red wheat is bound for export. What those latter three states have that Montana doesn't is a semblance of intramodal rail competition. And don't think for a moment that being a captive shipper state is irrelevent to the price grain farmers receive for their crop. Montana farmers have at least 1/3 of their profits eaten up in transportation costs. [quote]QUOTE: I think Glendive has the only "shuttle" elevator in the state.[/quote] I think there's more. Someone mentioned Mocassin a while back, there's a shuttle facility near Billings, and I assume there are a few others. But you are right, there's not that many compared to carload elevators. The problem with shuttle facilities is that they replace the carload facilities which were numerous and spread out accross the State. Thus the average truck haul from farm to railhead (including farm to local elevator to shuttle facility moves) has increased dramatically from about 15 miles to about 100 miles today. Thus whatever is "saved" by shuttle efficiencies is lost by having to longhaul (relatively speaking) by truck. Now, the logical solution to this is to keep the carload elevators active, whether on a mainline or a branchline, and allow a shortline operator to distribute/collect the cars at the local elevator and deliver them to the shuttle facility. There, the cars can either be added to the shuttle consist, or (if they are 264k or below) emptied at the shuttle elevator. A 264k car is still more efficient than a 105k truck. [quote]QUOTE: Simply put, ours is more expensive wheat. Montana farmers fight other states in an uphill battle against opportunity-cost. Big Sky Country is a good place to run "shooters." That's what BNSF wants to do here. If there were more rail options, BNSF might just let them haul the wheat. [/quote] Well, there were more rail options, and BN went to great lengths to make sure those other rail options were extinguished, and BNSF continues today to protect it's monopoly in Montana, even to the point of *purchasing* the Montana Western at an exorbinant price to prevent free interchange between UP and MRL. Frankly, if it weren't for the elimination of the PCE, BN may not have had the necessary income to stave off a bankruptcy of it's own.
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