The oil boom in the northern Plains “is creating a crisis for farmers whose grain shipments have been help up by a vast new movement of oil by rail,” said the New York Times. “The backlog is only going to get worse” with record crops to be harvested this fall. Farm groups say the railroads are favoring oil over grain, which the rail lines deny. North Dakota Sen Heidi Heitkamp says the backlog is a national problem because it affects food makers.
Persistent delays are “raising the risk of a second winter of chaos on the rails,” said Reuters. “The concerns are sharpest in the U.S. Farm Belt, with lawmakers feaful that the biggest crops on record may be slow to reach markets or not at all.” It says experts blame an incomplete recovery from freight backlogs that built up during a harsh winter combined with high demand for grain and oil cars. Some shippers say the railroads are not putting enough money into new terminals, track and equipment despite rosy finances.
“In the United States, more than 40 percent of goods, valued at more than $550 billion, are shipped by railroad each year on some 140,000 miles of track. Canada’s 30,100 miles of track carry half of the country’s export goods,” said Reuters.