WASHINGTON — BNSF Railway has been in hot water with federal regulators over the level of service it’s providing to a Montana coal mine.
But now BNSF has found an ally in a Missouri utility cooperative that has praised the railroad’s service.
“BNSF Railway provides unit coal train rail service from Wyoming Powder River Basin coal mines to our two power plants in Missouri,” Associated Electric Cooperative CEO David Tudor wrote in a letter to the Surface Transportation Board this week. “We load a trainload of coal every 16 hours on average. We receive and unload 700 carloads of coal a week at each plant on average. Coal delivery requires a 1,900-mile round trip for one plant and a 2,600-mile round trip for the other. Normal round-trip cycle-time is 6.5 days and 9.5 days, respectively. Except for the occasional weather induced delay, we have experienced excellent service from the BNSF.”
This year BNSF has been cycling the utility’s coal sets faster than usual, Tudor wrote. The utility operates the New Madrid and Thomas Hill coal-fired power plants.
The Springfield, Mo.-based utility also praised BNSF’s contract structure, service design, and commitment to making the capital investments required to provide reliable service.
“We have consistently found the BNSF, and the people who operate it, to be very interested in our success, which is measured by delivering affordable, reliable electricity to our member owners,” Tudor wrote.
BNSF has appealed an STB decision requiring it to haul 4.2 million tons of coal for Navajo Transitional Energy Co. this year, plus another million tons when crew and train set supply permit increased service. BNSF moves the export coal from the Spring Creek mine in Montana to the Westshore Terminal near Vancouver, British Columbia.
BNSF and NTEC began squabbling over coal volumes and service levels last year. NTEC filed a lawsuit in federal court last fall and this year asked the STB to order BNSF to haul more of its coal and to find that the railway has violated its common carrier obligations to provide service upon reasonable request.
Last month the STB sided with NTEC by ordering BNSF to haul more of the mining company’s coal. The board has set a procedural schedule to sort out the common carrier complaint. The preliminary injunction ordering BNSF to boost NTEC coal shipments said it was likely that NTEC’s common carrier complaint would succeed, but BNSF disagrees and is appealing the decision in federal court.
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