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Ag shippers survey shows rail service slippage

A survey of agricultural shippers indicates that Union Pacific is the top performer among the country’s seven largest railroads.  Soy Transportation Coalition executive director Mike Steenhoek says the organization’s annual Railroad Report Card shows an across the board lower score than a year ago.

“It’s quite evident there’s a lot of frustration and exasperation among grain handlers for rail service,” Steenhoek told Brownfield Ag News on Friday.

Reasons for the decline include last year’s big harvest, the severe winter, and most of all, competition for rail service by crude oil and coal, said Steenhoek.  The result is survey responses indicating that railroads’ ability to provide on-time service is down 28 percent, Steenhoek said.  The eleven survey questions are categorized under On-Time Performance, Customer Service and Costs.

“It can range from things like if you expect rail service on a particular day, will that actually occur, what kind of delays do you have?  Everything from the websites of the various railroads, how customer friendly they are,” said Steenhoek.  “There’s a lot of things we look at.”

The 2014 survey, the fifth annual, had the largest number of participants in the report card’s history.

AUDIO: Mike Steenhoek (3 min. MP3)

Railroad Report Card – Results (2014)