Came upon a 2025 WisDOT facilitated federal grant and found this $43 million project to build a BNSF shuttle train facility in Hager City, WI.
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This project here goes to show how competitive rail has become, with subsidized inland water transport.
When the Mississippi River gets low on water barges get restricted on tonnage they can haul. If Iâve heard correctly the Illinois River right now has a restriction on tow tonnage allowed due to low pool levels on the river. The Illinois River right now is running minimum water level. So theyâre restricting the amount of weight a tow can have on it.
Whenever the rivers rise that will go up.
Yes that is true of decreased water levels effecting draft. However this facility in the Upper Mississippi, gives shippers year round market access. The Mississippi freezes north of St Louis. Which means pricey storage for grains.
Yet even in good water years rail is very competitive with the Mississippi, Illinois, and Kaskaskia Rivers. I canât recall the last time grain was shipped on the Missouri River. Check out all the shuttle facilities, that have sprang up over the last two decades in the watershed. No one thought Staggers, would make rail competitive with highly subsidized Inland Waterways.
It also doesnât help that the 29 cent tax on fuel doesnât cover maintenance, and lock upgrades. The inland system needs to be tolled if it wants remain competitive. Including this tidbit.. The Mississippi is really only efficient south of Cairo, IL, where you have up to 48 barge tows.
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Hager City shuttle was addressed in the Mark Cane two volume Agriculture book - "Wow! Did We Ever Make a Differnence!
The volumes were incredibly educational on not only current transportation of Ag products (BNSF and predessors) but also the history of Ag in US.
Expensive but very educational.
Ed
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MP173 mentioned that I discussed the significance of Aciviaâs Hager City elevator in âWow! Did We Ever Make a Difference - How Burlington Northern Railroad and its Ex-Cons Revolutionized the North American Grain Supply Chain.â (available from Amazon)
As I cited in the book, the 1980 Staggers Act was an important enabler but what was more important is what BN did with Staggers freedoms. Among other things I discuss, this operation would not have been enabled without the conversion from boxcars to 100-ton (263k) jumbo covered hoppers, the advent of unit train operations and aggressive incentives to elevator operators to expand to accommodate them, the introduction of forward rates and equipment guarantees by BN, BNâs further evolution to 111-ton 286k hoppers, the migration of the corn belt north and west, the BNSF merger, and rapid expansion of shuttle trains which opened California, New Mexico and Texas feed lots and Mexico to very competitive single-line service. This only addresses a piece of the iceberg.
It is a phenomenal story and Burlington Northern really did make a difference. Farmers served by the Alcivia COOP elevator at Hager City, and many more across the Midwest, are among the many beneficiaries.
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