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Capitol View®
Tim Pugmire

Dayton holds summit to address railroad delays

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railsummit

DFL Gov. Mark Dayton emerged from a closed-door meeting with railroad officials today and said that track upgrades and more oil pipelines are needed to unclog rail shipments in Minnesota.

Those railway backlogs have been largely blamed on heavy oil train traffic from North Dakota. Dayton said after the meeting that shipments of agriculture products and taconite are starting to improve, but coal shipments are still a problem.

“We’re not going to get out of this predicament immediately,” Dayton said. “On the other hand, we’re not going to get out of it at all, it’s only going to get worse, unless we take steps all of us together - state government, federal government and the rail line and related industries - to operate this whole system more efficiently and more effectively.”

Dayton said the focus will be on improving track capacity, but oil pipelines will also be part of the solution. He said those projects need to go through an established approval process.

“The pipeline is going to be there for 50 to 100 years. It’s important to do it right and to set it up and operate it safely, because the potential for a catastrophic occurrence in a pipeline is different from, but of the same magnitude as, a rail catastrophe.”

Dayton said he wants the railroads to follow through on pledges upgrade track capacity.

Amy McBeth, a spokeswoman for BNSF, said after the meeting her company spent $120 million in Minnesota this year to expand service. She said more investments are planned next year.

“We’re seeing gradual improvements, and we expect that will continue as more of that capacity comes on line,” McBeth said.

Dayton said he plans to hold another in a series of regional meetings on railroad issues next month in Coon Rapids. He said he expects those issues to also get attention during the 2015 Legislature session.