North Dakota official criticizes BNSF Railway, Warren Buffett over rail shipment delays

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Omaha World Herald

By Russell Hubbard

FARGO, N.D. – The North Dakota Public Service Commission criticized BNSF Railway and Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett at hearing today on rail shipment delays.

Commissioner Julie Fedorchak told the federal Surface Transportation Board that farmers in her state are "captive shippers with a perishable product and no other rail options" who are being harmed by delays on the BNSF network.

Particularly galling, Fedorchak said, is that BNSF owner Berkshire Hathaway bragged about the railway's profits and foresight in Buffett's famed annual investor letter last year.

"I do not think our shippers would agree," Fedorchak said.

FULL story at link. Comments below photo.



Read more: http://www.omaha.com/money/north-dakota-official-criticizes-bnsf-railway-warren-buffett-over-rail/article_b218773e-3433-11e4-a4bd-001a4bcf6878.html

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Remember that Berkshire Hathaway owns the Omaha World Herald.

Oil before food: high volumes of other goods such as oil contributed to the delays.

[TwilightGardener]

1. The FRA needs to step in here and force a solution.

[Sopkoviak]

2. Effin' Warren(tax me more)Buffett again

And his partner in the RR Biz Bill Gates.

♪♫Have it our way♪♫

♪♫Have it our way♪♫

[SoapBox]

13. He is gett'n on my nerves.

Is he starting to think he CAN take it with him? Or is he down to his last few billion?

I am so sick of the greed.

[Jazzgirl]

3. The biggest problem is the explosion in gas shipments.

Coupled with the fact that they have a bunch of newbies with almost no experience running transportation, a whole lot of new employees and slow network expansion. I retired this year with 40 years and a crap pot load of us have retired over the last few years that know how to railroad. There are many more to come too.

[valerief]

8. Please don't use explosion with gas. I get creeped out about my own home's gas lines.

[Gore1FL]

15. I lived through the UP service crisis in 1998.

I traveled back and forth between St. Louis and Omaha every week.

I remember at the time people were saying UP might be the first company to go bankrupt because of too much business.

[liberalhistorian]

4. I live in South Dakota and the shortage

of railway shipment availability for wheat, corn and other crops now being harvested or getting ready to be harvested is a huge, huge, problem here and in neighboring agricultural states like North Dakota (we're not too far from the ND border). Farmers and commercial grain bin operators are openly talking about the loss of much of their record-breaking crops to spoilage because there's no more room for the harvested crops in the commercial grain bins and they're going to have to start dumping them on the ground, which some have had to do already.

The problem is, I'm having a tough time feeling too much sympathy for these farmers. Why? Because they've voted for the very party that is putting the oil companies and their needs above everything else and that have ordered the rail companies to give priority to the oil companies, and that have also underfunded and even attempted to destroy the necessary infrastructure needed by the farmers. Yet, all they still do is bitch about Democrats and "gubmint librals', etc., ad nauseum. You know what? You reap what you sow. Literally, in this case. And our tea-nutter repuke Senator Thune and Rep. Noem can claim that they're "working with the rail companies to ensure sufficient rail capacity for our critical agriculture industry" all they want, but THEY have also been prostrate slaves to the oil industry and their policies and votes have also contributed to this.

[elleng]

7. You have stated the issues well.

Wasn't it farmers who BEGAN 'progressive' politics in this country, the Granger movement?

'The Granger movement succeeded in regulating the railroads and grain warehouses. The births of the Cooperative Extension Service, Rural Free Delivery, and the Farm Credit System were due largely to Grange lobbying. The peak of their political power was marked by their success in Munn v. Illinois (1877), which held that the grain warehouses were a "private utility in the public interest", and therefore could be regulated by public law. However this achievement was overturned later by the Supreme Court in Wabash v. Illinois (1886).[5]

Other significant Grange causes included temperance, the direct election of Senators and women's suffrage. (Susan B. Anthony's last public appearance was at the National Grange Convention in 1903.) [6] During the Progressive Era of the 1890s to the 1920s political parties took up Grange causes. As a consequence, local Granges focused more on community service, although the State and National Granges remain a political force.

In the 20th and 21st centuries, the position of the Grange as a respected organization in the United States was indicated by a membership that included Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman, artist Norman Rockwell, businessman Frederick Hinde Zimmerman, and Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic.[6] The monument to the founding of the Grange is the only private monument on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.[7]

Grange membership has declined considerably as the percentage of American farmers has fallen from a third of the population in the early 20th century to less than two percent today.'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_National_Grange_of_the_Order_of_Patrons_of_Husbandry

[Lifelong Protester]

11. I Rec your post!

I live by the BSNF and see waaaaay more of the 'bomb' cars that haul oil than the usual cars hauling grain.

[elleng]

5. Sure wish I weren't retired.

STB is where I used to work, formerly Interstate Commerce Commission, and tho I probably wouldn't be involved in this matter, I'd have attended the hearing. 'Captive shippers' and monopoly, have been problem issues for a long time, and not handled well, imo.

[geardaddy]

6. It's causing delays in rail travel from St. Paul

Trains have been up to six hours late in some cases.

[elleng]

9. Which trains, passenger or freight?

[geardaddy]

10. passenger

Oil before people, dontcha know.

The Empire Builder

According to the Empire Builder schedule:

The Empire Builder Is Currently Experiencing Delays
Passengers traveling on the route of the Empire Builder are subject to
significant delays over portions of the route. Currently these delays
may exceed several hours. The BNSF Railway is currently undergoing
major infrastructure projects in North Dakota and Montana in order
to better improve the performance for both passenger and freight
trains. Please consult Amtrak.com or call Amtrak at 1-800-USA-RAIL
for the latest information regarding the Empire Builder operation
and schedules. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause
during your travel on Amtrak.

[Lifelong Protester]

12. I love to travel by rail. However...

all I see here along the Mississippi River are stopped BSNF cars, many with 'bomb' oil cars. I can only imagine this is happening on the Minnesota side, too. And that is where the Empire Builder runs.

[SoapBox]

14. wow

And I guess this won't be discussed on the nightly news.

[Gore1FL]

16. It's the freight operator's track.

They get good $$$ for on-time Amtrak movement, so it's not exactly oil-before-people as much as it is the rails are horribly log-jammed due to the infrastructure project.

I did 14-15 years at UP. No one wants to delay Amtrak. Seeing them stopped for long is a sign of something bigger going on.