Plains oil shipments disrupting Amtrak trains

[mahatmakanejeeves]

It's not just Amtrak, either. Hat tip, times two, to Trainorders.

Passenger Trains > NARP letter to Sec.Trans. Fox regarding the Builder

Canadian Railroads > Record Grain Crop Sits, Oil Moves

Plains oil shipments disrupting Amtrak trains

Posted on Wednesday, 01.29.14
The Associated Press

CHICAGO -- A group that advocates for train and rail transit passengers says a massive increase in rail shipments of crude oil from the northern Plains is partly to blame for disruptions to an Amtrak route linking Chicago and the West Coast.

The National Association of Railroad Passengers wrote to U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx this week urging him to intervene.

Amtrak's Empire Builder service runs along a BNSF Railway route that has seen an increase in oil shipments from the Bakken region of North Dakota and Montana.

Winter weather has exacerbated several months of disruptions. Westbound Amtrak trains this week have had to bypass several stops stretching across much of North Dakota, forcing the railroad to use buses to get passengers to those destinations. Delays have reached up to 10 hours.

A sugar company based outside Fargo, N.D., is also complaining about disruptions on the BNSF line. American Crystal Sugar Co. officials said this week they're worried that a slowdown in rail service could cost the company millions of dollars if it continues to disrupt production. American Crystal Sugar said it plans to scale back on output at three of its plants because it's running out of storage space waiting for rail cars.

Record Grain Crop Stuck on Prairie as Railways Tap Oil

By Jen Skerritt Jan 23, 2014 11:41 AM ET

Rising shipments of crude oil by train are tying up railway resources in Canada, leaving as much as 3 million tons of grain stuck on the Prairie after a record wheat and canola harvest.

Grain shipments to export terminals are two months behind due to a shortfall of rail cars, said Keith Bruch, vice president of operations for Paterson GlobalFoods Inc., a 106-year-old Winnipeg, Manitoba-based company with more than 30 grain elevators. Canadian National Railway Co. (CNR) and Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. are hauling more oil while engines and crews are needed elsewhere to move grain, he said.
....

Canada’s two major railways are tapping into the growing demand for crude shipments amid pipeline bottlenecks and rising production in Alberta’s oil sands. Canadian railroads shipped 34 percent more cars of fuel oils and crude petroleum in October than a year earlier and more than twice the same month in 2011, Statistics Canada data show. Carloads of crude oil surged to 53,453 in 2012 from 143 in 2009, according to Transport Canada.

‘Upset Buyers’

Railroads can’t get enough grain cars to customers after wheat and canola production across the Canadian Prairies rose to a record. CP Rail reported a 19,934-car shortfall, according to a January service report to Paterson GlobalFoods. Outstanding grain-car orders for CN Rail totaled 17,726, according to a Jan. 17 report posted on its website.



Canada's two major railways are tapping into the growing demand for crude shipments.
Photographer: Brett Gundlock/Bloomberg

[pscot]

1. wait 'til the westbound coal trains get going

Plans are for at least 100 trains a day from the Powder River basin to Puget Sound.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Farm leaders, energy producers: Rail delays are fewer, but still causing widespread havoc

Farm leaders, energy producers: Rail delays are fewer, but still causing widespread havoc

By Steve Lee on Apr 13, 2014 at 5:00 a.m.

The slow rail service threatening the livelihood of farmers in the upper Midwest have gotten better in recent weeks, but, at the Forest River (N.D.) Bean Co., the rail cars ordered from BNSF or Canadian Pacific are still two to three months behind, said the company president.

Brian Schanilec, a fifth generation farmer, ... was one of several farm leaders from North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota who joined other railroad customers and railroad officials testifying Thursday before a hearing of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Surface Transportation Board.
....

BNSF responds

While Canadian Pacific officials were at the Thursday hearing, it was BNSF that received most of the criticism from farmers and other groups dependent on rail for their shipping needs. BNSF now hauls more crude oil, mostly from North Dakota, than any other railroad.

“We are doing everything we can to restore service to a level that our customers have come to expect,” BNSF officials said in written comments submitted after their testimony Thursday. ... “BNSF handled over 50 percent of all volume growth on the U.S. rail network last year and shipments from North Dakota alone represented 20 percent of the industry’s growth,” they said. “Our volume spiked in late fall of 2013, which was followed by one of the harshest winters on record putting a strain on our network. BNSF responded by taking aggressive action to ‘over resource’ the railroad with people and locomotives to keep our customers’ freight moving.”