FORT WORTH, Texas — The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company (BNSF) announced that it will discontinue its North Dakota-Montana differential pricing structure when the current rates expire on July 31.
BNSF put the current pricing structure in place to offset the trend of reduced wheat harvests in Montana. By lowering the transportation rates to the Pacific Northwest (PNW) for wheat that would otherwise go to the domestic market, BNSF helped meet export demand and maintained those markets for U.S. wheat. In addition, this action ensured that BNSF’s significant investment in locomotive and grain cars continued to be utilized.
“To ensure that we maintain our wheat export market share in the Pacific Northwest, BNSF will be benchmarking its carloads against a recent four-year average to make certain that this change in pricing practice is not harming BNSF’s volume to the PNW,” said Matthew K. Rose, BNSF Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer.
BNSF also announced a change in its demurrage policy. Effective August 1, demurrage charge for covered hoppers in grain service will be reduced to $50 per chargeable day from the recently announced $75. In addition, BNSF will allow 26-car and 52-car unit grain trains that are spotted for loading on Thursday or Friday to have Saturday as free time, in line with BNSF’s April 1st change for single cars.
A subsidiary of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation (NYSE: BNI – News), BNSF operates one of the largest railroad networks in North America, with 33,000 route miles covering 28 states and two Canadian provinces. BNSF is America’s largest grain hauling railroad and is an industry leader in Web-enabling a variety of customer transactions at www.bnsf.com