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Government grant could return freight to Montana short line
This is another instance of crony capitalism. Giving money to the private sector in order to favor one over the other. Now before you truck haters start your guaranteed whine, which is so dependable I can set my computer’s clock by it, Montana should look at Wisconsin. Just as the state owns the roads, own the track. Then Montana can shove all kinds of money directly into a bridge, just as it would a highway. Then turn around and lease it to the railroad just as trucks and buses have to pay into the highway slush fund every time they fuel their vehicles.
OK. Permission now granted to whine like little girls.
Well, here we go with typical Goosie blather. Yes, Central Montana Rail is getting funding to fix the bridge. I’ll bet you wouldn’t utter a whimper if that was a highway bridge fixed. Yet when a railroad get aid to fix any damaged infrastucture yuou will .as usual, bitch. Hey Goosie no onem wants to hear your rants!
Mr. Guse has been gracious enough to give us permission to whine! How generous of him. The funny thing is that as soon as I saw a story about some sort of government grant I knew that Illinois’ own “best friend of the taxpayer” would chime-in. I am glad I was not disappointed!
Carloadings on the Central Montana over the years:
1993: 1,404
1994: 1,895
1995: 2,027
1996: 1,601
1997: 1,541
1998: 1,456
1999: 1,140
2005: 887
2006: 1,457
2007: 821
In 2009, an arbitration panel ruled that BNSF no longer had to pay the Central Montana Railroad a per-car subsidy for each car moved to BNSF interchange. It is explained here:
http://www.ble-t.org/pr/news/headline.asp?id=29943
Without the subsidy, carloadings plunged to just over 500 in 2009 according to this story: http://www.hpj.com/archives/2010/jan10/jan4/1228BNSFwantssuitinfedcourt.cfm
One railroad consultant is on record saying that shortlines need to generate 100 carloads per mile per year to sustain themselves. Using this guideline, the 85-mile Central Montana Railroad would need 8500 cars a year. It’s always been well below that. Circumstances are different for each shortline, but the Central Montana is especially devoid of traffic sources, just elevators at Denton and Geraldine.
As one of the articles (links above) state, when BNSF was paying the per-car subsidy, payments approached $1 million per year, or close to $1,000 per car, which is a substantial chunk of the total cost of moving the car from origin to destination. It’s no wonder BNSF wanted out.
The subsidy was initially put in place to “equalize” rates for grain shipped from BN/BNSF and the Central Montana Railroad. Taking Geraldine as the example, grain from Geraldine, most of which is destined for ports in Oregon and Washington, must first go 85 miles southeast on the Central Montana Railroad for interchange to BNSF at Moccasin, Montana, before going west.
Now, without the subsidy, shippers will have the added cost of shipping the grain to Moccasin in addition to the BNSF rate. Here are some of the characteristics of the railroad in moving grain from Geraldine to Moccasin:
All motive power
Why is it that in the last 2 years they couldn’t put together an estimate of how long it would take to repair the bridge - or were they just sitting around waiting for a taxpayer handout?
I don’t agree with Mr. Guse very often but in this case I concur. Based on the information provided in the article as well as by Mr. Meyer, I’m not sure it will be utilized enough to justify the investment unless there is something on the horizon they aren’t telling us about. With all the shuttle train loading sites around it will be hard for the little grain elevator’s to compete.
It’s refreshing to see an authoritative contribution such as Mark Meyer’s with data, references, and substance–sort of balances things out.
Wow. Jeffrey said something I can agree with.
Wow. Jeffrey said something I can agree with.
Goose’s comment makes no sense. He says to let the state buy the railroad. Maybe Montana isn’t interested. Then he says let them throw money into restoring the bridge while he subsequently throws out the irrelevant sarcasm about truck haters. Great example of the George W. Bush academic plan.
Jeff Guse wrote “Montana should look at Wisconsin. Just as the state owns the roads, own the track. Then Montana can shove all kinds of money directly into a bridge, just as it would a highway. Then turn around and lease it to the railroad”
Mr. Guse,
In fact, Montana owns the track and right-of-way, and leases it to the railway. What was your point again?
(see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Montana_Rail,_Inc. and http://www.lewistownnews.com/articles/2013/05/31/news/doc51a937c5a1868123395470.txt)
Will be Money well spent.
Will be Money well spent.