Slight rail performance gains still fall short for grain

The averted rail strike in December may have been the pinnacle of the rail crises in 2022, but issues have persisted well into 2023 for both the grain and entire agricultural industries.

As of February 8, there were 1,593 loaded grain cars that had not moved for 48 hours or more. This compares to 2,380 cars at the time of the Surface Transportation Board (STB) hearing on poor rail service in April 2022. A “good” service figure across the network is fewer than 1,000 cars, according to the National Grain and Feed Association (NGFA) President & CEO Mike Seyfert.