(The Associated Press distributed the following article on December 12.)
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Rail service was characterized Thursday as an efficient transportation system in need of money to upgrade tracks and equipment.
Many short-line railroads are operating on tracks that have lightweight rail or may have been abandoned and neglected for years by the previous owner, said Jack Parliament, president and general manager of the Dakota & Iowa Railroad and a member of the South Dakota Rail Board.
The rail industry is moving toward bigger grain cars – some can hold more than 100 tons – but existing tracks and bridges aren’t built for such capacities, he said.
“That makes the rehabilitation of these feeder lines more important and more urgent,” Parliament said at a railroad summit sponsored by the South Dakota Corn Growers Association and the Risk Management Agency.
The 90-100 people attending heard of loan programs available from the federal or state governments that can be used to maintain and improve rail lines. Panelists discussed rail freight rates, different ways to ship grain overseas, and the Surface Transportation Board’s role in the rail industry.
Trains hauling heavier loads must go slower on outdated rails, which creates bottlenecks, reduces efficiency and means delays in getting rail cars to elevators that need to ship grain.
It’s a problem not restricted to South Dakota, said John Thune, the event moderator.
”But I think the problem is more acute in this part of the country because we’re more captive shippers. Our economy is so dependent on ag that we notice it more,” he said.
One rail car can haul as much grain as 3 trucks, but if rail service continues to deteriorate, more trucks will mean more wear and tear on roads at a cost to taxpayers, said Thune, a former U.S. congressman and former director of the South Dakota Railroad Division.
”At some point our public policy-makers must decide if they’re going to put more money into another highway lane or into railroad infrastructure and bridges,” said Lynn Anderson, a vice president of the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad.
The DM&E and a sister company, the Iowa Chicago & Eastern, have about 4,000 grain cars between them that are shifted between South Dakota and Iowa as demand requires, Anderson said.
Demand for rail cars has picked up in the past two weeks to the point the company is falling behind in meeting shipping orders, he said.
”We believe it will get tighter in the balance of the month and into the first quarter (of 2004),” Anderson said. ”We don’t see any severe rail car shortages, but it will be tight.”
There are enough grain cars available nationally, but the industry can to do a better job moving them around the country by filling them faster at elevators and getting them out of ports faster, he said.
Anderson also gave an update on DM&E’s plan to build 260 miles of track into Wyoming’s coal fields and modernize its existing line across South Dakota and Minnesota.
Demand for coal from Wyoming’s Powder River Basin is expected to reach 500 million tons annually by 2010, he said.
”More and more of that coal will be produced and transported,” Anderson said. ”DM&E just wants to capture part of the growth.”
The best-case timeline would have the project completed in four years, he said.