Farmers complain about BNSF rates to STB

[jsanchez]

Sounds like BNSF needs to learn how to work with small customers better, I think this is one of the reason they are not earning cost of capital like Norfolk Southern. (which is pretty good at serving small customers)
I'll tell BNSF a business secret , small customers often grow into big customers. BNSF actually gave an award to the managers, who have been implementing these grain policies, that have done nothing but anger farmers, elevator operators, state legislatures, federal representatives, the public, and could fuel the case for reregulation. Reregulation would wind putting the rail industry back into the dark ages, so I hope BNSF somehow wisens up.

[bobwilcox]

Its past time to give Montana to Alberta.

[CShaveRR]

The fram filter must have missed the title.

Suitable for framing.

[Anonymous]

Why don't they ship Union Pacific?
Allan.

[edblysard]

Shows what you know...ilk don't slither...we shake, rattle and roll...and the plural of ilk is...ilk, not ilks.
Kinda like one deer, two deer, or a bunch of deer, but no deers.


[:D]

[Anonymous]

For the record, the same article appears in the Missoulian:

http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2005/10/30/breaker/doc436405640a4cc947450090.txt

There is one additional paragraph in the Missoulian version missing from the dfw version, next to the last paragraph above:

"I’m ***ed tired of subsidizing the railroad in Montana. Every time they shut down another elevator, more trucks run over our highways. Whenever they ship grain from Iowa, BNSF is the conduit to subsidize other farmers.”

Seems some folks think it is the railroads that are being subsidized, not necessarily the highways.

[Anonymous]

Yep, just post something about railroad rate gouging, and the ilks will slither up from the cesspool of arrogant idiocy.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by greyhounds

Consultants will generally say anything you pay them to say and "prove it" with a bunch of BS numbers - kind of like lawyers.......

......and rail industry propagandists.

[JoeKoh]

well not only in the upper midwest but around here in ohio too.elevators and farmers are saying there arent enough grain cars at the elevators.the beat rolls on
stay safe
Joe

[greyhounds]

Farmers have been complaining about rail rates ever since there have been rail rates.

And politicians have been using the issue to get themselves elected for the same time frame.

And jounalists just love this, and any other, "controversy" to write about. It sells papers.

"A consultant said?" Consultants will generally say anything you pay them to say and "prove it" with a bunch of BS numbers - kind of like lawyers.

[mudchicken]

'scuse me, gotta go pick myself off the floor![(-D][(-D]

[edblysard]

Farmers frame Futuremodal's forecast of future financial failure....

[Anonymous]

They must be engaging in a "Frame up" with all those "Framers"...FOFLMAO...

LC

[edblysard]

Yeah, and?....

[Anonymous]

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/state/13031461.htm (Link)

Farmers air complaints about BNSF

Associated Press


BIG SANDY, Mont. - Grain growers angry about BNSF's freight service and rates shared their gripes with a federal official, who responded that absent a formal complaint, there is little his office can do.

More than 100 people gathered at Big Sandy High School on Friday for an appearance by Doug Buttrey, vice chairman of the federal Surface Transportation Board. Gov. Brian Schweitzer asked Buttrey to come to Montana and hear concerns about Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., based in Fort Worth, Texas.

A similar meeting took place later Friday in Scobey.

During the 2 1/2-hour Big Sandy session, one farmer after another complained about eroding service and high freight rates.

"We can only decide a case that has been filed with us," Buttrey responded.

Montana Senate President Jon Tester, a Big Sandy Democrat and farmer running for the U.S. Senate, said people in Montana agriculture "cannot wait a long time. If we file a case and it drags on ... we don't have the pockets that the railroad has" to sustain the case.

Buttrey said there are guidelines under which a mediator can hear small rate cases.

BNSF spokesman Pat Keim said rail rates respond to market conditions, and since 1981, rail prices have lagged compared to other farm expenses.

A consultant, Terry Whiteside, said grain growers in Montana and North Dakota encounter the nation's highest freight rates because the growers are served by only one railroad.

Montana's rail system has shrunk since deregulation began in the 1970s. The state has 2,000 fewer miles of railroad now than in 1975, said *** Turner of the Montana Department of Transportation.

"In Montana, 94 percent of the rail system is controlled by one railroad," he said.

Farmers have seen their cost of doing business rise with the expense of hauling grain farther and farther, as local elevators next to railroad tracks close. Eleven large, high-speed shuttle loaders have been installed in Montana, and some farmers find no alternative to taking their grain to those locations.

BNSF announced in June that it would raise shipping rates on grain loaded at 52-car elevators, the kind closer to many farms. But a month ago, BNSF undid the rate increase. Loading relatively close to farms still costs $200 more per grain car than at the shuttle loaders.

Demand for cars was strong in August and September because grain shippers released last year's corn at the same time as this year's wheat crop, said Keim, BNSF's government affairs director based in Helena. Now, he said, Midwest shippers are moving soybeans and this year's corn crops, and barge availability is limited because of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

"The entire surface (shipping) system is stretched to its limits," Keim said.

He also said it is "a misnomer to say the railroad is driving small elevators out of business. Demand led to creation of the shuttle loader network."

Responded grain grower Darren Genereux of Big Sandy, "Pat makes us feel like BN is on the brink of bankruptcy. On Oct. 25, they reported all-time high quarterly revenue and freight rates were up 18 percent. This is all on the backs of the farmers."

Tester said that over the last 25 years, "farmers have had the screws put to them, but they handled that by increasing production." That will no longer work, he said.

"It's important that the Surface Transportation Board scrutinize those rates and make sure they are fair and affordable," Tester said.

Schweitzer said the railroad is a monopoly not living up to deregulation requirements intended to protect captive shippers, such as Montana grain growers.

"Competition is one of the most important things we should have out here in Montana and North Dakota," Schweitzer said.

Keim said he would convey the complaints to railroad officials. He was unable to say whether that report would make a difference, he added.



Edited do to having no sleep and misspelling :)