By ANN ALLEN
Indiana Correspondent

FORT WAYNE, Ind. — At the invitation of the Soy Transportation Coalition (STC) and the Indiana Soybean Alliance, Frank Mulvey, a commissioner on the federal Surface Transportation Board (STB), visited Central States Enterprises in New Haven and Louis Dreyfus Commodities in Claypool last week.

At the conclusion of the tour, the combined entities met with Mulvey in Cutz Restaurant at the Hilton Fort Wayne to discuss shippers’ concerns. Facilitator Mike Steenhoek, executive director of the STC, said he wanted Mulvey to become better acquainted with rail service concerns facing agriculture, after Commissioner Dan Elliott found a similar tour in central Iowa to be educational and worthwhile.

“Based on that feedback, I decided to reach out to the other commissioners to gauge their interest in doing a similar visit,” Steenhoek said.

The STB, a three-member economic regulatory agency that Congress charges with resolving railroad rate and service disputes and reviewing proposed railroad mergers, was created in 1995 to succeed the Interstate Commerce Commission. Although it is administratively affiliated with the U.S. Department of Transportation, it makes independent decisions with jurisdiction over railroad rate and service issues and rail restructuring transactions (mergers, line sales, line construction, and line abandonments).

In addition, it oversees certain trucking company, moving van and non-contiguous ocean shipping company rate matters; certain intercity passenger bus company structure, financial and operational matters; and rates and services of certain pipelines not regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

“What Americans produce, manufacture, purchase and consume requires a transportation system to deliver products in a cost-effective manner,” Steenhoek said in a recent news release following a study of expanding semi weight limits over the federal highway system.

Dean Campbell, an Illinois producer and STC chair, stated in the same release, “We need to find ways to increase the efficiency of all modes of transportation while not endangering fellow motorists or causing added stress on the existing infrastructure.”

That pointed the finger to railroads, some of which have allowed their abandoned lines to be converted into hiking and biking trails. This is done with the understanding, Mulvey said, that they be constructed in such a way that the railroad could later put the right-of-way back in service.

The number of Class I lines has shrunk because of mergers, until only seven large railroads remain. Of these, STC ranks Union Pacific as providing the best overall customer satisfaction, with Canadian Pacific bringing up the rear. Lines that fell in between were Burlington Northern Santa Fe, Canadian National, Norfolk Southern (the line that serves both Louis Dreyfus’ Claypool operation and New Haven’s Central State Enterprises), CSC Transportation and Kansas City Southern.

The survey, completed anonymously by agricultural shippers of various sizes, rated one-time performance, customer service and costs.

The survey also indicated 41 percent of rail movements of soybeans (9.89 million tons) are transported at rates the STB would classify as potentially excessive, resulting in a potential overcharge of $110 million in 2008. It further stated that 60 percent of biodiesel is transported at potentially excessive rates.

Without specifically addressing those issues and using a prepared PowerPoint presentation, Mulvey delineated rail changes in the past 25 years: increased train speeds, longer trains with more units and a decrease in crew size. He said testimony about competitive access, reciprocal switching, alternative route prescription and the financial status of railroads had created a pile at least four feet high without any suggestions for change.

“They’re just assertions,” he said.

The STB has a list of initiatives that includes updating uniform rail cost, increased transparency and more active monitoring of the industry. According to Mulvey, the STB also will address the fate of reauthorized legislation, funding levels, increased rail traffic and an opportunity for board members to answer rail shippers’ concerns.

An STB hearing on the current state of rail competition in the United States is scheduled for today in Washington, D.C. It was originally set for May 3 but postponed to June 22.