Railroads are reporting service challenges to the Surface Transportation Board. According to Red River Grain Company General Manager Kelly Longtin, railroads are facing a variety of problems. “It’s the cold weather and they’ve been getting snow in the PNW and the mountains. Railroads are also dealing with COVID and a lack of employees.” The USDA Grain Transportation Report says grain train speeds are down four percent from the three-year average. In the most recent reporting week, the railroad grain train dwell times are up 151 percent. “That’s a lot. If they planned on having the cars parked at origin for 20 hours, it would be here 50 hours. Fifty hours is a long time and I guarantee you those cars were loaded by the elevator on arrival and got them loaded even if it was the middle of the night and it was -20 degrees.” The USDA says the number of unfilled grain car orders was up more than 400 percent from the long-term average. “Why are they taking more car orders when they’re already behind?”
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