(The Associated Press circulated the following story on February 18.)
FARGO, N.D. — Area officials are expected to discuss a shipping center study next month.
The Burlington Northern Santa Fe terminal in Dilworth, Minn., which combines truck and rail shipping, potentially could gain business by upgrading or moving to another site in the area, says the study by the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute at North Dakota State University.
The study was commissioned by the Fargo-Moorhead Metropolitan Council of Governments, a planning organization serving Fargo, Moorhead, West Fargo, Dilworth, and Cass and Clay counties.
A council committee is scheduled to discuss the study March 3.
Originally, the study was designed to survey businesses within 200 miles of Fargo-Moorhead. The scope was narrowed to 100 miles after an announcement last fall of plans for a $7 million shipping center in Bismarck.
Businesses within 100 miles of Fargo-Moorhead are more likely to use shipping centers in the Minneapolis area and in Winnipeg than the one in Dilworth, the study found.
“That surprised me,” said Mark Berwick, a transportation institute official who led the study.
The study suggested that access to the Dilworth center “may be problematic for residents and truckers” because the terminal is within the city.
Ken Parke, the Dilworth city administrator, said it is premature to comment on the study or what might happen to the Dilworth terminal.
“But we want to be closely involved in the process,” he said.
BNSF spokesman Steve Forsberg said he was not familiar with the study and could not comment. In general, he said, the railroad tailors the size of its intermodal locations, which combine various transportation modes, to the amount of business generated.