Two to three 100-car crude oil unit trains a day now arrive in the Pacific Northwest daily. That number, say researchers, is likely to increase geometrically as more rail crude-oil terminals are built here.
His objective is to remind BNSF — the major rail connection between Pacific Northwest ports, the markets of the Midwest and the wheat fields of the Dakotas, Montana and Eastern Washington — not to give the region’s ports short shrift in the railroad’s efforts to cater to new-found energy business customers.
Port commission members say they fear the growing influx of oil and coal trains will clog the BNSF mainline across Washington, Idaho, Montana and North Dakota and slow down delivery of consumer goods and industrial parts to Midwest destinations.