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BNSF revenues up 6 percent in third quarter 2013
Grain quantity depends on the weather and the farmers, more than anything. Change either one, and the quantity drops. West coast ports have nothing to do with it. That grain can just as easily move to Superior and be loaded on Canada’s fleet of lakers for movement east to ports on the St. Lawrence for export. Or it can be moved east to the Mississippi and loaded on barges for New Orleans export. Grain, like many other bulk commodities, is always fungible.
Grain will bounce back, unless the unions shut down the ports in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. We had a record harvest in Montana.
I live on the BNSF ‘High Line’ in Shelby, MT. Shelby is a busy place, with 40-50 main line trains a day. It is also the junction of the Great Falls sub, bringing trains from the south, and the Sweetgrass sub to Canada. Busy place, with Amtraks “Empire Builder”’ stopping twice-a day, in daylight. Lots of silly windmill trains, too.