Grain Piles Up, Waiting for a Ride, as Trains Move North Dakota Oil

FARGO, N.D. — The furious pace of energy exploration in North Dakota is creating a crisis for farmers whose grain shipments have been held up by a vast new movement of oil by rail, leading to millions of dollars in agricultural losses and slower production for breakfast cereal giants like General Mills.

The backlog is only going to get worse, farmers said, as they prepared this week for what is expected to be a record crop of wheat and soybeans.

“If we can’t get this stuff out soon, a lot of it is simply going to go on the ground and rot,” said Bill Hejl, who grows soybeans, wheat and sugar beets in the town of Casselton, about 20 miles west of here.

Although the energy boom in North Dakota has led to a 2.8 percent unemployment rate, the lowest in the nation, the downside has been harder times for farmers who have long been mainstays of the state’s economy. Agriculture was North Dakota’s No. 1 industry for decades, representing a quarter of its economic base, but recent statistics show that oil and gas have become the biggest contributors to the state’s gross domestic product.

Railroads have long been the backbone of North Dakota’s transportation system and the most dependable way for farmers to move crops — to ports in Portland, Ore., Seattle and Vancouver, from which the bulk of the grain is shipped across the Pacific to Asia; and to East Coast ports like Albany, from which it is shipped to Europe.

But reports the railroads filed with the federal government show that for the week that ended Aug. 22, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway — North Dakota’s largest railroad, owned by the billionaire Warren E. Buffett — had a backlog of 1,336 rail cars

I had the good fortune of a business trip to Fargo and points beyond in the middle of February. I decided to take the Amtrak train from Chicago. The tracks are owned by the private railway and lease time slots to Amtrak. The oil had priority over public transportation on the line that runs north out of Fargo. On the way to, I had to continue my journey via bus due to the oil traffic. It wasn't a big deal because it was only about an hours bus ride to my destination.

After I concluded my business a few days later, I had to wait in the Amtrak station about ten hours (no, I didn't mind. I always travel prepared) until the train arrived. Since the time slot had been missed, our train could only move in short runs while deferring to the oil traffic. To make a long ride short, We arrived back in Chicago about fourteen hours late. I had missed my connection so Amtrak put me up in a nice hotel for the day. It was soon after that Amtrak cancelled that route, losing money I am sure, until Washington stepped in and gave the passenger service a higher priority. The route resumed shortly after and has run closer to schedule ever since.

I just thought it was interesting how things went and the attitudes of different people I met on the trip. Some were disgusted with Amtrak and others understood it was not in their control. I like riding the train and will do it again at the next opportunity. Amtrak gets hammered a lot but it is the only service available of it's kind. The employees are friendly and helpful and the trip is usually relaxing. I don't care for driving on trips in the winter weather and felt really safe looking out the window at snow drifts towering above me as I passed through at eighty mph!

One thing I will mention is the appearance of the oil trains, either moving or at rest. They looked for all the world like a big black pipeline!

I've taken Amtrak's Empire Builder between Chicago and Edmonds (WA) many times, and it's one of the great railway journeys of the world. I've had my own share of adventures, like when the locomotive and the rest of the train separated near Grand Forks (ND) in the middle of the night in winter.

I've also been on Amtrak routes when all the important dispatching windows were missed, and the train was hopelessly late. The relationship between Amtrak and the Class I railroads has always been tenuous, although BNSF is better than the other railroads in servicing Amtrak.

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