Economic Viability

Communities would gain nothing but disruption if DM&E builds the proposed PRB coal project and runs up to 43 coal unit trains a day.

The economic consequences include:

A potential hazardous-materials catastrophe. A train accident and hazardous-materials spill in town would have devastating long-term consequences for any trackside community. This kind of accident is capable of killing or injuring thousands of people, meaning it could strike a significant portion of the population in most towns along the DM&E line.

Immediately following a chemical disaster, contaminated buildings would have to be shut down for up to two months. How many local businesses could survive a shutdown or severely limited operations?

In the aftermath, which businesses would be able to recover? Which businesses would disappear after customers move away or choose not to do business at the site of a chemical disaster? The town’s tainted reputation would derail the local economy, making it hard to attract and retain both residents and employees.

Falling property values. The existing main line passes through 72.7 miles of business and industrial land and 11.8 miles of residential land. Increased noise, diesel fumes, traffic congestion and safety concerns would make houses and other buildings along the tracks less desirable. In addition, vibration from passing freight trains has potential to damage 259 structures within 100 feet of the tracks and create inconvenience for occupants of another 1,041 structures within 200 feet plus another 2,738 structures within 400 feet, according to the Federal Railroad Administration.

Separation from customer base. Some businesses could suffer if traffic delays caused by frequent trains cause customers to avoid rail crossings, especially in communities where businesses have located north and south of the tracks. 

Train rich, service poor. The PRB extension could harm local businesses by transforming a multi-use rail line into a dedicated coal corridor. If coal shipments come to dominate the line, DM&E could have trouble making room for rail cars to and from local shippers. In that case, towns could see a parade of high-speed coal trains and starve from lack of rail service.

Any talk about local “economic development” along the proposed coal corridor ignores DM&E’s ambitions.

“It’s the first coal PIPELINE,” DM&E President and CEO Kevin Schieffer told Rail Intelligence in 1998. “This railroad is designed for one purpose—to move PRB coal as an end-to-end heavy haul railroad with a mileage advantage over BNSF and UP to targeted markets in the Midwest and East.”

In a 2002 court case, Schieffer testified that the primary purpose of the PRB project is to provide railroad transportation for coal mined in the Powder River Basin and that the project has no purpose in providing railroad transportation to South Dakota shippers.

As Trains Magazine wrote in December 2007, “DM&E executives have promised that they’ll change the way current coal contracts are presented to utility customers, revamping their line to primarily handle coal and make it a priority.”