Washington Business Spring 2019 | Washington Business | Page 39

business backgrounder | transportation
Washington Business magazine reached out to the WSDOT
specifically regarding rail permitting and expansion to learn what
the agency may have planned, such as streamlining permitting. The
agency declined the interview request.
Don Esterbrook, Northwest Seaport Alliance deputy CEO of commercial
and operations groups, said it’s not just increased consumer demand and
industry growth, but unforeseen circumstances, like hurricanes, that cause
spikes in cargo to the region.
“There are a lot of factors that come into play, obviously some are
weather related,” Esterbrook said. “The storms that we’re seeing in
Asia and here in the U.S. effect the vessel schedule as well. The vessels
start ‘bunching up’ back-to-back. That surge of cargo can make it very
challenging to stick to a consistent schedule.”
Ahead of the storms, he explained, ports begin moving cargo out rapidly,
so it doesn’t get damaged or delayed by the weather.
Add the increased vessel traffic due to weather events to the ports’
peak season, Esterbrook said, and the ports can run into a situation where
trains get backed up. “That jeopardizes your schedule consistency and
reliability,” he said.
industry optimism
Headwinds aside, rail has been and will continue to be a critical part of
Washington state’s economic engine.
With a solid safety record, increasing consumer demand and investments
in people and infrastructure, Wallace has her eyes set on the future of rail
and its benefits to the region.
“Seattle and the Pacific Northwest have been an important part of our
network for 100-plus years and we hope it will be an important market for
us for another 100 years,” she said.
“The storms that we’re seeing in Asia and here
in the U.S. effect the vessel schedule as well. The
vessels start ‘bunching up’ back-to-back. That
surge of cargo can make it very challenging to
stick to a consistent schedule.”
– Don Esterbrook, deputy CEO leading the commercial and
operations groups, Northwest Seaport Alliance
BNSF Railway in Washington state:
bnsfnorthwest.com/washington
Union Pacific in Washington state:
bit.ly/2UnionPacificRR
Federal Moves May Impact Rail
What happens with rail policy at the federal level has
a big impact on Washington state. That’s because
“Washington is twice as export intensive as the U.S.
average,” said Nate Kaplan, state director for GoRail.
International trade agreements are important —
keeping the rail lines humming with a strong import
and export economy is one issue Kaplan said his
group is engaged on, noting that 42 percent of rail
activity is tied to international trade.
The other issue is far more complex.
After Congress partially deregulated the railroad
industry in the 1980s, railroads were free to operate
as individual businesses, establishing rates and
routes. And, today, nearly all are privately owned,
operated and maintained, something most Americans
don’t understand, Kaplan explained.
But, for as long as railroads have been partially
deregulated, groups have pushed to re-impose the
old command-and-control regulations. There are, in
fact, a few rulemakings pending at the U.S. Surface
Transportation Board (STB), which is a five-member
board appointed by the president and confirmed by the
U.S. Senate, that oversees rail economic regulation.
One such proposal, Kaplan explains, would go so far
as to require railroads to open their tracks to those
of competing railroads. “The federal government
would be making those decisions, instead of the
market,” he said.
The danger, according to Kaplan, is that this change
could reduce railroad revenue by over $8 billion per
year. “For an industry that invests 40 cents of every
revenue dollar back into its infrastructure, that’s a
big loss of potential investment, which could harm
not just the companies that are advocating for the
changes, but also consumers and taxpayers who have
to further subsidize highway freight movements.”
But, it hinges on filling two open seats added at the
STB, which was expanded to a five-member board
in 2015.
With three members in place following action by the
U.S. Senate at the end of 2018, the board could move
forward on the proposal soon.
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