[Vision2020] Grain Exports

[Mark Solomon]

Chris,

I agree. As nice as trails are I would much 
prefer to see the rail capability restored. 
Unfortunately, if one looks at the history of the 
western US railroad corporations, it is much more 
a story of land acquisition/speculation than rail 
transport. Having pilfered as much as they 
possibly could from the public domain and 
transferred it to private empires, they are now 
closing/abandoning all but the most profitable 
routes. For an in-depth look at the railroad that 
the inland NW is most reliant on, Burlington 
Northern-Santa Fe (aka Burlington Northern aka 
Northern Pacific) see "Railroads and Clearcuts" 
by Jensen, Draffan and Osborn (1995).

Mark Solomon

At 1:57 PM -0800 9/9/05, Chris Storhok wrote:
>Ron, Mark, Tom,
>
>Not only is the current transportation network is inefficient and subject to
>failure when significant strain is placed on it, it also ties the hands of
>decision makers when looking for alternatives to river transport for dam
>breaching.  Bert Bowler and I collaborated for a few years on alternatives
>to barge transportation.  Unfortunately, our conclusion was rather simple
>without rail there really is not an alternative to barge transportation on
>the lower Snake River.  The cost of restoring the entire rail system that
>moved grain prior to the completion of the dams was well in excess of $100
>million (it was rapidly approaching $200M in 2003) and had become,
>unfortunately, almost politically impossible.  Maybe one of the few
>positives of this disaster will be fresh look at our inefficient and
>outdated transportation system.
>Chris Storhok
>   
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com
>[mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com]On Behalf Of Phil Nisbet
>Sent: Friday, September 09, 2005 1:37 PM
>To: vision2020 at moscow.com
>Subject: RE: [Vision2020] Grain Exports
>
>
>Ron
>
>The zone is actually from Lewiston to Tri-Cities, with reloading to ocean
>going in Portland or Vancouver.  The tearing out of rails not only of the
>lines mentioned by Chris, but also the old Milwakee line across to St Regis
>took a lot of that transport back to rail to the Tri-Cities and pushed cargo
>
>container traffic to use Rail in Portland or Seattle.
>
>I appologize for lumping all of the other Port facilities from Lewiston to
>Tri-Cities under a single banner.  It was a tad sloppy.  Thanks for pointing
>
>it out.
>
>But Hansen was infering with his rather snid post that the Columbia River
>System was somehow not a significant waterway and that it could not possblyt
>
>handle the shipment of Grain exports.  While New Orleans does ship almost
>twice the grain that this system does, it is actually cheaper if rail were
>still in place to do it, to ship from here and there is more than enough
>availible capacity to do so for the Northern Tier and Midwestern grain
>producers.
>
>If we are at all serious about lowering our reliance on overseas oil, we
>need to lower our use of fossil fuels by moving goods wisely, not on
>semi-tractors, but on modern rail systems.  Just as importantly, we need to
>have a better diversification for our Port systems so that the failure of a
>single mega-Port like New Orleans does not so radically spin us toward
>economic failure.
>
>Phil Nisbet
>
>
>>From: "Ron Force" <rforce at moscow.com>
>>To: <vision2020 at moscow.com>
>>Subject: RE: [Vision2020] Grain Exports
>>Date: Fri, 9 Sep 2005 13:16:12 -0700
>>
>>Phil, I believe the 27% applies to the entire Snake-Columbia River system,
>>not just the Port of Lewiston.
>>
>>source:  RTC Bi-State Transportation Committee
>>   http://www.rtc.wa.gov/meetings/bistate/bistatereport.011129.htm
>>
>>**********************************************
>>Ron Force         Moscow ID USA
>>rforce at moscow.com
>>**********************************************
>>
>>The Port Of New Orleans is indeed a large mover of grains and agricultural
>>productsm, but you seem to be disparaging of the Port Of Lewiston.  27% of
>>all grains exported from the USA every year go through the port 27 Miles to
>  >our south.
>>
>>
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