Small Town News

Railing over a buyout

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The oracle of Omaha put on an engineer's hat last week and bought a railroad.

Warren Buffett purchased Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) for $34 billion, calling it an "all-in wager" on America's economic future.

According to press reports on the transactions, "few changes to the railroad are expected." That's unfortunate because Rolla could certainly use an alteration in BNSF's current plan, which apparently doesn't include service to lines north of Highway 2.

In 2007. BNSF pulled the plug on Rolla after dodging and diving away from repairing the line. The announcement caught many off guard as the company had just informed Rolla Cooperative Grain that the line was going to stay open.

It's not as if our small hamlet wasn't pulling its weight.

Prior to the shut down, the Rolla Cooperative Grain Elevator had normally handled between 3 million and 4 million bushels of grain per year for patrons of Rolette and Towner counties.

In a typical year, Rolla Co-op Grain would load out more than 800 rail cars.

The grain company has since turned to trucking but the return of railroad service would mean more economic vitality to the area, not just for the community of Rolla but all of Rolette County.

In addition, since the shutdown, Northern Plains Railroad, a short-line service based in Fordville, has been attempting to negotiate with BNSF to resume service between Rolla and Bisbee.

Those talks, however, have been rather one-sided with BNSF officials seemingly not wanting to be bothered with such discussions.

The stretch between Rolla and Bisbee has been idle for two long years and that's all the time BNSF needs by law to officially abandon the line. That's the last thing we want to see.

Officials in several other cities along the northern tier of North Dakota, including Bottineau, should watch this situation closely because they could be dealing with it next.

Buffett, who is one of the world's richest men, is famous for his hands-off approach to running companies he purchases. Let's hope, however, that he sees something we don't: a renewed interest in rail service as well as a reversal of BNSF's current trend of cutting out the towns on the edge.



Copyright 2009 The Lake Metigoshe Mirror, Bottineau, North Dakota. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from SmallTownPapers, Inc.

© 2010 The Lake Metigoshe Mirror Bottineau, North Dakota. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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