(The Associated Press distributed the following story on August 5.)
WICHITA, Kan. — Rail is making a comeback in Kansas as the preferred method of transporting wheat to market since the Kansas & Oklahoma Railroad began operations.
In its third year of operation, the Kansas & Oklahoma Railroad saw a 30 percent increase in customers compared to 2002. The railroad, owned by Watco Cos. of Pittsburg, has nearly doubled its number of customers since it began operations in 2001.
“Needless to say, keeping up with the harvest required a lot of cooperation from our Class 1 partners to provide rail cars, and we got outstanding help, especially from the BNSF (Burlington Northern Santa Fe),” said Ed McKechnie, a spokesman for Watco. “They provided the cars, we provided the service, and this was a very successful harvest.”
During the 2003 wheat harvest, Watco used a fleet of 1,650 cars in Kansas – 650 of its own cars, 700 cars from BNSF and 300 from Union Pacific.
Last week, the BNSF and Watco teamed up to celebrate the success of the 2003 wheat harvest and the role railroads played in it with an hourlong train ride from downtown Wichita to the Mulvane station and back.
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and state Secretary of Agriculture Adrian Polansky were aboard, along with railroad officials, state legislators and rail shippers.
The celebration marked the growing success of the K&O, which operates 920 miles of track in south-central and western Kansas.
In a deal that closed July 1, 2001, Watco purchased the Central Kansas Railway from OmniTrax, the Denver-based company that had owned it for more than a decade.
The Kansas Legislature approved the Port of Pittsburg Port Authority and 20 years of annual tax abatements to help finance the rehabilitation of track, especially on lines that had not been maintained for decades.
“These guys did a fantastic job for us, and we both won,” said Patrick Hiatte, a spokesman for BNSF. “The K&O has been a terrific partner. Under their operation, the branch lines are working, the customers are being served, and we’re seeing the benefits in increased business.”
McKechnie said the K&O has been pleased with the response from elevator operators, almost all of whom shipped at least part of this year’s harvest by rail.
He said the desire of shippers to use rail was immediately apparent, even though the K&O began operations just in time for one of the worst droughts in Kansas history.
He said 56 percent of the K&O’s customers increased their rail traffic in 2002 over 2001, even though drought drastically reduced the number of bushels harvested.
Watco also owns the South Kansas and Oklahoma railroad in southeast Kansas.
With 2,500 miles of track in 23 states, Watco is the largest privately owned short-line railroad company in the nation.