U.S. STB Censures CP and BNSF
WASHINGTON - Jun 25/14 - SNS -- Canadian Pacific Railway Company (CP) and BNSF Railway Company must begin publishing weekly status reports as of June 27 as part of an effort to clear the backlog of grains orders in the United States.
The ruling by the Surface Transportation Board (STB) stemmed from public hearings in April, which looked at the this year's service problems in the United States rail network.
In releasing its decision, the STB noted, "During the hearing, farmers and representatives of agriculture producers described severe, negative effects resulting from backlogged grain car orders and delayed shipments of loaded grain cars. The reported impacts included, for example, elevators running out of storage capacity, risks of stored grain spoiling, and penalties incurred by grain shippers for products that are not delivered on time."
The STB said that since the hearings CP and BNSF have provided regular data on the "status of their operations and their progress in resolving the ongoing service issues.
"BNSF has described to the Board its 2014 plans to add employees, locomotives, and make additional capital investments. BNSF's plans indicate that a significant portion of these increases to personnel and equipment will be allocated to its Northern corridor, which carries a significant amount of grain traffic. CP's public submissions to the Board, however, have not to date clearly articulated its plans for resolving the grain car order backlog in the near term."
Inadequate Railway Response
The STB does not feel the railways are doing enough to clear the backlog before this year's harvest. As a result, the STB has directed the two railways to "provide an updated plan, by June 27, 2014, to reduce their respective backlog of unfilled grain car orders and resolve grain car delays (for CP, on its United States network) including their timeline for doing so.
"CP's report shall specifically address its plan for ensuring a fluid and reliable interchange of loaded and empty grain cars with Rapid City, Pierre and Eastern Railroad, Inc.
"The Board will further direct CP and BNSF to provide weekly status reports, beginning June 27, 2014, regarding the transportation of grain on their networks (for CP, on its United States network).
"As part of these status reports, CP and BNSF shall provide, by state, the running total of outstanding grain car orders at the end of the week, the total number of new orders for the week, the total number of orders filled for the week, the number of orders cancelled by shippers for the week, the number of orders cancelled by CP or BNSF for the week, and the average number of days late for all outstanding grain car orders. CP and BNSF shall also report the number of cars allocated to grain car service each week, including the number of private cars in service.
"CP's report shall include the number of grain cars requested by Rapid City, Pierre and Eastern Railroad and the number of cars furnished by CP on a weekly basis. These reports will be required until each carrier resolves its backlog of unfilled grain car orders."
Comments by SunParirie Grain's Kayla Burkhart suggest the grain industry is a little cynical about how much impact these rulings will have.
"Meetings and presentations with industry leaders have indicated that CP rail performance is not due to improve any time in the near future. This means that we could see slow railcar placements into and throughout harvest, giving us plenty of fresh challenges for making space for new crop grain. Rail placements did improve over the planting season and we were able to open up a lot of space. . . . The last thing we want is to be full two weeks into harvest and waiting weeks for railcars."
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