Tom Dempsey Wrote:
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> Put 12,000 Rocky Mountain doubles on those
> chipseal "highways" for one season and you'll
> quickly see the cost effectiveness of moving the
> grain by rail along the current conduit versus
> truck.

Ahh, chipseal - the highway equivalent of 70 lb rail! BTW - are you suggesting that the presence of EWG has eliminated 12,000 Rocky Mountain doubles from the roadways of Douglas, Grant, and Lincoln counties? I would point out that more truck/miles would be reduced if BNSF was willing to haul grain from elevators along the ex-GN line through Odessa.

> Go two seasons, that problem goes away.

??????

> You don't have to do much maintenance on a dirt
> road.

So grain hauled to EWG rail load facilities use only dirt roads e.g. virtually maintenance free roads?

> In addition, trucks aren't even in the
> ballpark when it comes to emissions and fuel
> efficiency.

At the standard 4 to 1 efficiency advantage of rail over truck, the EWG haul to Ritzville has no real advantage over direct trucking to Ritzville.