Testifying Tuesday, June 18, 2013 before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, an Army Corps of Engineers official said the agency would not expand its environmental review of coal being exported through U.S. West Coast ports, despite objections from environmentalists in several western states.
The Association of American Railroads Wednesday took issue with a decision by the Surface Transportation Board, issued Tuesday, “not to factor into their review of coal rail rates product and geographic competition information affecting wholesale power markets.”
I wanted to provide a few comments on your December 2012 edition, from my perspective as a civil engineer with over three decades of experience designing infrastructure for railroads/transit, power, and coastal protection.
In travels through the Pacific Northwest last week, BNSF Chairman and CEO Matthew Rose sought to ease concerns of cities and other interests in Washington and Oregon that an expected increase in export coal ports and the number of trains serving them will prove to be unduly disruptive.
With a 23% increase in intermodal revenue taking some of the sting out of 14% slump in revenue from utility coal, Kansas City Southern has reported second-quarter 2012 revenue of $545 million. That’s an increase of 2% over the second quarter of 2011.
Greenwich, Conn.-based Genesee & Wyoming, Inc. Monday released its freight traffic results for the second quarter, noting total freight carload traffic fell 6.9% compared with the second quarter of 2011.
There’s no question about the importance of coal to the railroads. It has recently accounted for 44% of U.S. Class I railroad tonnage, 24.1% of carloads, and 24.2% of revenue. A mild winter coupled with abundant and cheap natural gas has led to a sharp decline in coal traffic—it was down 16% in the week ended May 10 and coke was down 9%.