(The Associated Press distributed the following article on January 8.)
HAVRE, Mont. — Some farmers in northern Montana are worried their local grain elevator may soon lose rail service.
Farmer Thad Willis said there are rumblings that Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway is planning to stop sending trains to the elevator in the Big Sandy area, about 80 miles northeast of Great Falls.
“It’s huge. It doesn’t just affect us,” he said.
BNSF spokesman Gus Melonas said the railroad has not made any decision regarding the Big Sandy line, and has not filed a request for permission to abandon the line. Melonas said the railroad also does not comment on possible future actions.
“BNSF provides local service on an as-needed basis in Big Sandy,” Melonas said. “The future is driven by requests for service.”
Randy Olstad, general manager of the Big Sandy elevator and two elevators in Havre, said the Big Sandy elevator has not made a request for rail service since October. He said that’s because it’s cheaper for the Big Sandy elevator to ship the grain by truck 35 miles northeast to Havre.
Farmer Lochiel Edwards, who is president of the Montana Grain Growers Association, said he believes the railroad is pushing for all grain to be loaded at high-speed loading facilities, such as those installed in the last few years in Harlem, Havre and Rudyard. They are designed to rapidly load 110-car grain trains.
“What we’ve got here is a situation where BN figures they’re going to haul the grain anyway, and they’re going to the shuttle loaders,” he said. “The Big Sandy elevator is in jeopardy.”
Melonas said BNSF doesn’t discuss rates for specific customers, but that the railroad offers a variety of rates for a variety of grain services. The rates for service to Big Sandy are the same as rates for the same size train in Havre, he said.
BNSF’s published rates for shipping grain from Havre or Big Sandy to the West Coast lists a cost of $3,136 a car for 110- to 120-car trains, or 93 cents a bushel. The cost for 52- to 109-car trains is $3,291 a car or 98 cents a bushel.
Big Sandy typically uses 52-car trains.
Olstad said BNSF offered the elevators incentives to use the high-speed shuttles in Montana in addition to its published rates. The rates ended up being about 12 cents a bushel lower than a 52-car train rate, and he can have the grain trucked to Havre at about 11 cents a bushel, he said.