July 6, 2005 Roger
Nober, Chairman
Dear
Chairman Nober, There
is an old saying that to find out how good the soup is at a restaurant
you should ask the customers, not the cook.
Likewise, when you comment on railroad service you should listen
to what rail customers have told you.
Your June 15 letter to railroad CEOs gratuitously compliments
them on service in the face of substantial evidence to the contrary.
Why do you ignore the facts brought to your attention by
non-railroad stakeholders? Your
June 15 letter to railroad CEOs requested their plans for handling peak
fall demand. In it you
stated: “I am pleased
that despite the unprecedented volumes tendered to the railroads during
the 2004 fall peak season, the railroads were able to handle these
demands without any significant degradation of system fluidity and
performance.” This is
not the way it happened, and the STB was informed of that. Several
executives of state grain and feed associations met with Vice Chairman
Buttrey in DC in late February and told him of a quite different
reality. The North Dakota
Grain Dealers Association sent an email to you on March 11 detailing
grain railcar orders being 40-50 days behind.
Containerized ag shipments were delayed on the Pacific Coast.
There have been late and incomplete car delivery problems on
other railroads as well. Other
industries have likewise complained.
Coal and electric utilities, for example, told last fall of short
supplies at power plants. An
article titled “Backlog into 2005” appeared on page 25 of the
November 22 Traffic World. Page
34 of the December 20 TW issue says “…high freight demand
exasperated network fluidity…” Your
letter also states: “Since
last fall, all of the railroads have continued to work to improve their
service offerings…” In fact the exact opposite is occurring.
CP Rail has cut off co-loaded 100 car shipments of corn and
soybeans to the West Coast and is dropping the co-loading option
altogether. BNSF suspended
car ordering in numerous months. Recently
it suspended all Certificate of Transportation sales for August through
October, except for 1000 singles available in October.
It has reduced its tariff lottery from 4700 cars per month a year
ago to 900 cars per month now, systemwide.
With no COTs and only a dribble of tariff cars, non-shuttle
shippers are left with almost no service whatsoever.
On June 20 BNSF announced elimination of all 52-car wheat rates
by August 15 or sooner. These
steps effectively abandon service to entire classes of shippers without
formally abandoning the rail line on which those shippers are located.
You
publicized your June 15 letter. We
call on you to now set the record straight with the public and with RR
CEOs. Sincerely, Grain and Feed Association of Illinois
Copy:
V.Chmn Douglas Buttrey
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