State rail tracks seeing increased traffic

Freight traffic and cold weather took a toll on Amtrak service across the Hi-Line in December, with the cancellation of half a dozen Empire Builder trains.

The disruption affected passengers bound for Whitefish, the Empire Builder’s busiest stop with 66,000 riders per year.

The news coincided with confirmation that BNSF Railway officials have asked to meet with Columbia Falls city officials in January over plans to establish quiet zones at the Second Avenue West North and Fourth Avenue East North at-grade crossings.

The increase in train traffic through Columbia Falls prompted the city council to put the quiet zones on their list of goals. It took city staff several months to finally connect with the appropriate BNSF officials to move forward.

A BNSF spokesperson blamed the impacts to Amtrak on congestion caused by general freight trains, including trains hauling grain.

Trains hauling crude oil from the Bakken fields in North Dakota were not necessarily a main contributor to the congestion, but North Dakota is now the No. 2 oil-producing state, with Bakken wells pumping out 769,000 barrels a day. Texas is No. 1 at 2.22 million barrels a day, and Alaska recently fell to No. 3 at 556,000 barrels a day.

Meanwhile, plans for West Coast coal-shipping terminals and a dramatic increase in the number of coal trains crossing Montana has drawn a lot of attention from environmental groups.

In June, the Sierra Club and several environmental groups sued BNSF in federal court claiming the railroad company had violated the federal Clean Water Act. The plaintiffs claimed coal, coal chunks, coal dust and other pollutants fell from passing trains into waterways in Washington state.

The environmental groups claimed the friable pieces of coal contain mercury, arsenic, uranium and other harmful toxins, and that the pieces of coal fell off trains despite the use of “topping agents” or other suppressants to keep the coal in place.

The federal Surface Transportation Board had looked at the matter several years earlier. In March 2011, it ruled that coal dust falling from trains was fouling railroad track beds and suggested BNSF could take steps to prevent that from happening.

BNSF issued new rules for coal trains in July 2011, requiring coal be loaded on railcars in a “bread loaf” shape and then sprayed with a topping agent.

On Dec. 11, the Surface Transportation Board ruled that BNSF’s rules were reasonable and that BNSF could require coal shipping companies to follow the railroad company’s rules. BNSF officials say they will work with shippers moving coal from Montana’s Powder River Basin to ensure full compliance.

In the political arena, Northern Plains Resource Council chairman Steve Charter criticized Montana Attorney General Tim Fox in a December op-ed piece for siding with coal producers over plans to build a West Coast coal shipping terminal.

Fox had written to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the state of Washington urging them not to study impacts on Montana by the proposed Millenium Bulk Terminal at Longview, Wash. The terminal could ship about 48 million tons of Wyoming and Montana coal to Asia each year.

Several state legislators have also weighed in on the matter, arguing in op-ed pieces that Washington state should not be able to hold up interstate transportation of coal, and that Montanans will benefit from the coal exports.