(The following editorial appeared on the Bismarck Tribune website on October 19.)
BISMARCK, N.D. — Though not unique among states in their complicated relationships with the railroads having routes within their boundaries, North Dakota has more than a century of history during which residents loved and hated the train companies.
In turn, railroad corporations have well served and gouged North Dakotans, particularly farmers. One of the prime reasons for the Prairie Populism movement was protest over the freight rates imposed on farmers, particularly wheat growers. The names of Jay Cooke, Jim Hill and George Washington Cass were not uniformly said with affection.
Participants in the 19th annual Governor’s Conference on North Dakota History will dine on railroad history – literally. The meals during the conference Nov. 2-3 will be from the 1964 menu of the dining car of the Northern Pacific Railroad’s Northcoast Limited.
Nostalgic railroad buffs doubtless will bask in thoughts of the glory days of passenger train travel. But not all memories are glorious. The iron horse certainly was disastrous to the Plains Indian culture. And there still are a few who can remember troop trains, whose purpose certainly was serious and the accommodations were far from the luxuries of the private cars of the magnates.
It should be recognized that while the story of railroads in Dakota Territory and the state is fascinating, the story is by no means over.
Railroads are as vitally important as ever. Whether it’s a unit train of cars filled with wheat or the constant succession of immense coal trains, whether it’s BNSF or Canadian Pacific, the Soo Line or one of the short lines such as the Red River Valley &Western, we’d be in a world of hurt without their freight-hauling capacity.
Trucks simply wouldn’t be able to haul the load.
The methodology of the Department of Transportation’s freight analysis framework has changed over the years, but a good representation is shown in the 2002 statistics. Within the borders of North Dakota, trucks hauled more than half the 108.3 million tons of freight. Only 1 million tons of freight went by rail – from point to point within the state. But look at the figures of freight shipped from within North Dakota to points out of state, there’s a drastic shift. By truck, 28 percent of the freight was shipped; by rail, 21 percent. Another 1 percent went by a combination of truck and rail car.
States, especially western U.S. states, have struggled with railroad corporations over freight rates as long as the states have existed and rails were laid. There’s no reason to believe that the tug of war ever will end. We’re in the position of needing railroads; it’s unthinkable that North Dakota would ever be without them. But it’s good that public service commissions act to keep to a controllable level the tendency of the much-consolidated giant rail companies to throw around their weight.
North Dakota’s railroad history is rich. The history still is being made.