Byron Dorgan: “today I am joining Senator Rockefeller and others in introducing legislation that is designed to address some chronic…”

“today I am joining Senator Rockefeller and others in introducing legislation that is designed to address some chronic problems facing rail shippers, especially small, captive shippers such as the small grain elevators in agricultural States like North Dakota. As this bill is introduced in the Senate today, thousands of bushels of grain are lying on the ground in North Dakota because there are no cars available to small elevators to take wheat and barley to market. The frustration of North Dakota farmers and grain shippers is focused not only on the availability of grain cars to take their products to market this time of year, but also on what they have to pay when they have only one railroad serving them. The rates captive shippers pay to get their products to market reflect the basic principles of economics: where there is competition there are lower rates and where there is not, the captive shipper pays significantly more. While the legislation we are introducing today will not create more grain cars this year and it will not solve full the myriad of concerns that many captive shippers have with respect to rail service in this country, this bill will take a step towards addressing some issues that will help improve the situation of captive shippers.”