House lawmakers consider investments in the nation’s railway system.
BNSF Railways shared their thoughts during a hearing on the issue and called for legislators to allow railroads the freedom to innovate for safety, efficiency, and sustainability. The company also says that it is important for regulations to be uniform across the country to prevent a patchwork of state rules.
Corporate VP, Tom Williams says that public-private partnerships will support ag’s global advantage in shipping and exports.
“I would really say just let us keep doing what we’re doing with our private investment,” Williams states. “We’ve invested significantly to support the bulk ag franchise and we’ve also opened up some new facilities to support agricultural loading and containers, and again working through that private investment has been a successful model for us and it really has positioned our ag business quite well.”
He says that the backlog of shipping containers at ports has not significantly disrupted rail traffic, but he did note that there are more empty containers being shipped back, than pre-COVID times.
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An investment in infrastructure is an investment in ag