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BNSF is ready for a big harvest

An official of BNSF Railway says the railroad is well-prepared for what are expected to be record corn and soybeans crops this fall.

“We are ready to go. We’ve got locomotives, we’ve got people, and we’ve got track capacity,” says John Miller, group vice president for agricultural products for BNSF. “We’re already moving a big amount of old-crop, essentially at harvest pace right now—and that tells us that’s a good sign for the next several months.”

Miller says the demand for grain shuttles—110 car unit trains—has been very strong, setting a new record for the month of August.

“We’re running 130 shuttles right now and the previous record was around 115. And we’ve sold 139 shuttles for the new-crop, which is also a record—for late October, November, December,” he says. “So, (there’s) good demand, we’re operating very fluidly right now, and we’re seeing good prospects ahead of us.”

BNSF is the largest hauler of ag products in the U.S.

AUDIO: John Miller