BNSF ordered to submit coal plan

The STB has told BNSF to provide a detailed plan to overcome issues should a coal shortage arise.    BNSF has until Jan. 29 to submit a coal contingency plan to the Surface Transportation Board, according to an agency ruling.
   The board decided Dec. 30 to require BNSF to give them “a detailed description of the contingency plans it would use to mitigate an acute coal inventory shortage at one or more generating stations in a region.”
   The ruling comes out of a request by the Western Coal Traffic League, who told the board that its customers are continuing to see service problems. In late October, the board directed BNSF to reply to the WCTL’s contingency-plan petition.
   The railroad first wrote a letter to the board detailing current and future investments aimed at improving service quality, new coal-transportation initiatives, and transparency efforts.
   “BNSF contends that preparing and filing a coal service recovery plan, as envisioned by WCTL, would not contribute materially to its customers’ perspective on its operations,” the board said of the letter.
   The railroad’s official response to WCTL reiterated many of the points in its letter to the board, but it also argued that the STB didn’t have the authority to mandate such a requirement. BNSF also presented two more legal arguments that it said prevented the STB from requiring the contingency plan.  
   After gathering comments from other utilities and concerned parties, and taking a look at the data BNSF has been submitting as part of a previous ruling, the board made its decision.
   “With respect to BNSF and coal specifically, the totality of the information collected to date suggests that BNSF’s coal service has struggled, although there has been some progress in recent weeks,” the board wrote in its ruling. “It is critical that the board continue to closely monitor BNSF’s performance for indications of improving or deteriorating service.  In addition to monitoring BNSF’s coal service performance via the data we collect, we will continue to hold regular meetings with BNSF senior management so that we can receive first-hand information about the challenges and progress BNSF is experiencing with respect to all service issues, including coal.”