(The Associated Press circulated the following article on December 20.)
RICHLAND, Wash. — Produce shippers in Eastern Washington say the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad’s proposal to expand rail service between Quincy and Tacoma won’t meet their needs.
Produce shippers east of the Cascade Range have been negotiating with BNSF for six months to get regular train service to ship containers to Puget Sound ports for export to China and the Pacific Rim.
In a letter to Northwest Container Service in Portland, Ore., BNSF executives said they planned to expand service between Quincy, in central Washington, and Tacoma in January. Trains would run twice a week.
Gary Cardwell, vice president of Northwest Container Service, said the plan would take too long to get produce to the Tacoma port – up to 100 hours.
In addition, the proposal doesn’t offer service to Seattle, where most of the export commodities are put on ships, Cardwell said.
Cardwell also said BNSF is proposing a “pass-through” train, which may not have room for additional containers.
“We need to have a dedicated train and there is no way to provide a reliable service with a service plan that is 100 hours,” he said. “The freight needs to be there the day before (the ship leaves). If it is not there it has to wait a week.”
Produce shippers have complained that BNSF is more concerned with shipping long-haul freight from the Midwest, which is more profitable, than short hauls of regional commodities.
Gus Melonas, BNSF’s Seattle spokesman, said the company has invested $50 million to improve tracks in the state, is running record volumes of freight and has hired a significant number of employees to meet added demands.
“We continue to invest in the region to meet the demands of the customers and we will continue to make improvements in the future,” Melonas said.
Pat Boss, spokesman for the Port of Quincy, said BNSF’s letter was baffling, coming after a conference call with state Agriculture Director Valoria Loveland, other state officials and railroad officials less than two weeks ago.
“We made it clear that we needed at the very most a four-day service for perishable products, and what they came back with was a lot more than that,” Boss said.
The importance of rail service became evident in November when a rockslide closed Snoqualmie Pass.
“When the pass closed in November, shippers were caught flat-footed and they realized rail service is a good alternative, a good backup plan,” Boss said. “But right now what we have is very erratic service.”
Loveland said regular rail service is imperative and would help ease highway traffic. “We have all our eggs in one basket,” she said. “We need to expand our modes of transportation.”