It's Not Just the Builder being Impacted on BNFS

From the Wall Street Journal, 3/13/14:

A major snarl in railroad traffic is ricocheting through the supply chains of businesses across the U.S., causing delays and losses for shippers of goods ranging from coal to sugar.

Many of the problems stem from pileups at BNSF Railway Co. in a critical northern stretch of the country where it is shipping crude oil from North Dakota's booming Bakken Shale region. The railroad, one of the biggest in North America, was already taxed by the heavy demand for oil transport. But its difficulties multiplied when it ran out of locomotives and crew, as a bitter winter forced it to use smaller trains.

Click to expand...

The full story is HERE (WSJ subscription may be required)

Google
Surge in Rail Shipments of Oil Sidetracks Other Industries
to bypass paywall.

I wonder if they will "ramp up" the improvement schedule when it's their OWN reputation being seriously impacted. They certainly aren't willing to do that for Amtrak passengers.

BNSF's Ice to North Dakota senators: Ag product shipments will be on time come June

BNSF Railway Co.'s agricultural product shipments are about 19 days behind schedule in North Dakota — about the same as other commodity shipments systemwide — and ag shippers should expect to see declines in past-due rail cars throughout April and May, President and Chief Executive Officer Carl Ice told U.S. Sens. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) and Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) during meetings held earlier this week.

BNSF expects ag product shipments to become current in June, Ice said, according to a press release issued by Hoeven's office.

The senators met with Ice to follow up on a range of concerns in the state pertaining to slow-moving ag product traffic, poor Amtrak service and rail safety issues.

Click to expand...

Sounds like BNSF is not alone.

U.S. rail traffic was mixed again in year's 10th week

For the week ending March 8, U.S. railroads reported 274,480 carloads, down 1 percent, and 244,015 intermodal units, up 3.7 percent compared with volumes from the same week late year, according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR)....
Through 2014's 10th week, severe winter weather remained a significant headwind to railroad operating metrics, such as terminal dwell time and cars on line, said Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc. analysts in their weekly "Rail Flash" report.
"All three large public US Class Is recently noted bringing on additional locomotives to help assuage network issues," they said.

Click to expand...

That's the problem of hosting Amtrak trains. Anyone can check its timetable and see how we'll the host railroad is doing.

I hope they follow up this summer, love to see Rose and Ice get call out about there performance. (Or maybe get praise for fixing it.).

Oh wait that my alarm clock going off, time to awake up out of this dream, and face the world.

If your young BNSF is hire 15-25* conductors at each crew location along the high line.

*random look up, not even sure of the number of crew bases.

Just-Thinking-51 said:

That's the problem of hosting Amtrak trains. Anyone can check its timetable and see how we'll the host railroad is doing.

Click to expand...

Ha! So, arguably, KCS is more opaque than the other six Class I freights.

I hope they follow up this summer, love to see Rose and Ice get call out about there performance. (Or maybe get praise for fixing it.).

Click to expand...

Yeah, the latter would be especially nice.

When the weather warms up expect to see the delays decline drastically even if they do nothing at all. First, they will be able to run longer trains. The number of trains that can be put over any given piece of railroad is almost independent of the length of train up to the point where the train lengths in both directions reach the capacity of the shortest siding in the given section of railroad. Second, the work force can be outside for more than a few minutes at a time without risk of hypothermia and frostbite.

Maybe it is time for those that move from warm house to warm car to warm office to warm where ever else they go to get a glimmer of what it means to work outside in all kinds of weather.

You can certainly expect BNSF to work on line capacity to the extent that their finances permit unless they perceive the increased traffic to be a short term blip rather than a long term increase.

Their reputation as a freight hauler on the hi-line is being impacted. It is just that the freight customers are a little (a lot really) more understanding of the realities of extreme cold and signifcant increase in traffic than the press and politicians and the noisy "I don't care about the reasons, but never again will I ride a train" passengers.

There is no grounds to complain that the railroad has reduced capacity previously available. This line has never been double tracked so it is not a case of the railroad cutting line capacity that was previously there.

CHamilton said:

Sounds like BNSF is not alone.

U.S. rail traffic was mixed again in year's 10th week

For the week ending March 8, U.S. railroads reported 274,480 carloads, down 1 percent, and 244,015 intermodal units, up 3.7 percent compared with volumes from the same week late year, according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR)....Through 2014's 10th week, severe winter weather remained a significant headwind to railroad operating metrics, such as terminal dwell time and cars on line, said Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc. analysts in their weekly "Rail Flash" report.

"All three large public US Class Is recently noted bringing on additional locomotives to help assuage network issues," they said.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

All three? BNSF, UP, CSX, NS. Which one are they not counting? Then there is CN with a large US presence and KCS. Who is this Robert Wl Baird that needs to learn how to count?

George Harris said:

CHamilton said:

Sounds like BNSF is not alone.

U.S. rail traffic was mixed again in year's 10th week

For the week ending March 8, U.S. railroads reported 274,480 carloads, down 1 percent, and 244,015 intermodal units, up 3.7 percent compared with volumes from the same week late year, according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR)....

Through 2014's 10th week, severe winter weather remained a significant headwind to railroad operating metrics, such as terminal dwell time and cars on line, said Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc. analysts in their weekly "Rail Flash" report.

"All three large public US Class Is recently noted bringing on additional locomotives to help assuage network issues," they said.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

All three? BNSF, UP, CSX, NS. Which one are they not counting? Then there is CN with a large US presence and KCS. Who is this Robert Wl Baird that needs to learn how to count?

Click to expand...

Are they all publicly traded in the US?

BNSF isn't publicly traded anymore; it's owned by Berkshire Hathaway. CSX, NS, and UP are all listed on the NYSE. CN and CP are also Class Is, but they're Canadian; KCS is smaller than the others.

Yep. He was pretty clearly talking about CSX, NS and UP.

George Harris said:

When the weather warms up expect to see the delays decline drastically even if they do nothing at all.

Click to expand...

They're not going to do nothing. As soon as it get warm, we're going to see delays go through the roof as they start all of their construction projects.

RyanS said:

Yep. He was pretty clearly talking about CSX, NS and UP.

George Harris said:

When the weather warms up expect to see the delays decline drastically even if they do nothing at all.

Click to expand...

They're not going to do nothing. As soon as it get warm, we're going to see delays go through the roof as they start all of their construction projects.

Click to expand...

Yes, but the delays will be more predictable/controllable. The problem with the weather is that it tends to shut down all lines in a region at the same time.

Perhaps.

But they certainly won't be declining, let alone drastically. All we have to do is look at last summer for a guide.

RyanS said:

Perhaps.

But they certainly won't be declining, let alone drastically. All we have to do is look at last summer for a guide.

Click to expand...

True