Weather-related backups and demand from shippers
Union Pacific and other main freight railroads are now required to join BNSF Railway in filing detailed weekly reports on shipping delays, as federal regulators attempt to cope with complaints from farmers and coal-burning utility plants who say crude oil gets top priority.
The Surface Transportation Board said in a ruling this week that all seven Class 1 railroads with U.S. operations are required to submit weekly information on average train speeds and the amount of time trains spend waiting in terminals, along with a description of operating conditions in Chicago. That city, one of the nation’s busiest rail interchanges, is often cited as a choke point.
This year, Berkshire Hathaway-owned BNSF and Canadian Pacific Railway were required to submit such reports after delays mounted in their northern operating areas from weather-related backups and demand from shippers of Bakken crude oil produced in North Dakota.
Now Omaha-based Union Pacific and the other major freight carriers are being subjected to the same scrutiny. The Surface Transportation Board about a month ago held hearings in Fargo, North Dakota, where farmers and utility companies lambasted rail service.
“Shippers expressed concerns about the lack of publicly available rail service metrics and requested access to certain performance data,” the Surface Transportation Board said in a decision released Wednesday. “There is a need for broader standardized performance data from the railroad industry.”