(The Associated Press circulated the following story on December 3.)
RIVERTON, Wyo. — The president of a Riverton company says a rail corridor between the Green River Basin and Shoshoni would spur development of untapped resources.
Marty Manasco, president of WyoTrans, Inc., said such a corridor could also be used for power lines, gas pipelines, fiber optic lines and even to ship water produced from coal-bed methane drilling to the Southwest.
”Rail shippers across the western two-thirds of Wyoming do not have a choice of transportation service providers,” Manasco said. ”And they are paying rate premiums of 60 percent or higher because of that.”
He said the lack of competitive rail shipping has prevented the development of significant deposits of natural resources and added-value manufacturing due to the high cost of getting products to market.
Manasco, a 16-year veteran with Burlington Northern Santa Fe, recently worked on the Wyoming Transportation Group’s Tri-Basin Rail Project, a prpoosed 203-mile rail line from Sweetwater County to Shoshoni.
The project was a joint venture between the BNSF and Green River Basin trona producers.
”We spent $5 million on engineering, surveying and other investigations and determined that such a line could be built,” he told the Riverton Economic and Community Development Association on Thursday.
The line was not built, however, because producers won a concession from Union Pacific Railroad and dropped the project.
”It failed because the soda ash producers got a $7/ton break on their export contracts over the next 15 years and that was the end of the story,” he said. ”The soda ash producers achieved their objectives and UP maintained its foothold.”
Manasco said the failure of the Tri-Basin Rail project is a temporary setback. He said he formed WyoTrans, Inc., and set up shop in Riverton this past month to continue to promote the idea.
”We have a window of opportunity that will only last for several years because BNSF is now looking at divesting its Casper Division, the rail line from Laurel, Mont., to Morrill, Neb.,” he said.
Manasco said that if the BNSF main line, which now runs through Big Horn Basin and to Central Wyoming through Wind River Canyon and Fremont County, could be obtained and new partners found to build the Sweetwater County to Shoshoni rail land, it would help the state’s economy.
”Wyoming’s economy is driven by the mining and production of the state’s natural resources. Wyoming’s shippers are heavily dependent on rail transportation, and with the exception of coal from the Powder River Basin, Wyoming shippers are held captive to a single rail service provider, the UP,” Manasco said.
He pointed out that it costs $10 per ton to ship coal fro mthe Powder River Basin, but $55 a ton to ship fertilizer from Rock Springs and $35 a ton to ship refined soda ash from the Green River Basin.
He said rail competition could stimulate mineral development on the Wind River Indian Reservation, which has deposits for gypsum, phosphate and bentonite.