(The following story by Tom Steever appeared on the Brownfield Ag News website on October 29, 2009.)
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Union Pacific Railroad has prepared for a big harvest. Company spokesman Mark Davis says Union Pacific has been staging rail cars in strategic areas of the Grain Belt, which he says has helped the carrier move trains faster.
“We’re getting, for example, four trips a month for a unit train, all covered hoppers, versus two-and-a-half times a month three years ago,” Davis tells Brownfield.
Because of the economic downturn, Davis says U-P has about 7,500 grain cars along with about 3,200 locomotives in storage. If needed however, many will be brought back into service.
“Half of [the locomotives], about 1,500, are in light storage, so those would be available right away,” says Davis, “and then the rail cars, once they come out of storage they’re given a mechanical inspection and basically they’re ready to go because when we store them, we repair anything that’s wrong with the car before storage.”
In many cases, Davis says rail carriers are transporting this year’s crop as well as the remainder of the previous year’s crop that’s been in storage at elevators.