Bethlehem Steel Corporation - 5 a viable program for the national utilization of coal resources and at the same time foster continued development of other fossil fuels in a manner which will best serve the nation and the economy. CC: Senator Henry M. Jackson Senator Warren G. Magnuson Very truly yours, R. E. Johnston Thank you for your letter of June 13, 1975 requesting the comments of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States on S. 1777, the National Petroleum and Natural Gas Conservation and Coal Substitution Act of 1975. Although the Chamber acknowledges that American industry must gradually convert many of its operations to our most plentiful domestic energy resource, the Chamber at this time does not have firm policy which would allow it to make specific comments on this legislation. The Chamber will be happy to comment when such policy is developed. STATEMENT OF CHICAGO AND NORTH WESTERN TRANSPORTATION COMPANY S. 1777 National Petroleum and Natural Gas Conservation Chicago and North Western Transportation Company is the nation's largest employee-owned company, operating in excess of 10,000 miles of railroad in eleven midwestern states. It serves a territory bounded by Duluth, Minnesota on the north, Chicago, Illinois on the east, St. Louis and Kansas City, Missouri on the south, Lander, Wyoming on the west, and Oakes, North Dakota on the northwest. One of its main lines extends between Chicago, Illinois and Fremont, Nebraska at which point North Western interchanges substantial transcontinental traffic with Union Pacific Railroad Company. At each of its major junctions it interchanges traffic with other rail carriers thus forming through routes to and from all points and places in the United States. North Western is committed to the transportation of coal. In both 1973 and 1974 it transported in excess of 150,000 carloads of bituminous coal. This coal originated in southern Indiana and Illinois, western Kentucky, the Pocahontas Fields, and the western low sulphur fields. Most of the coal from the latter origins is transported in solid unit trains by which maximum efficiency and car utilization can be achieved. In this energy-short era, unit train technology is particularly attractive, not only because it permits massive movements of coal so necessary for America's industrial and other electrical requirements, but also because it provides this transportation at a very low expenditure of energy per unit transported. North Western, together with Burlington Northern Inc., is presently proposing a new line of railroad, approximately 116 miles in length, to traverse the low sulphur coal deposits of the Powder River Basin in northeastern Wyoming. Approximately nine miles of this line will be solely owned and operated by Burlington Northern, and the remainder will be jointly owned and operated by the two railroads. Substantial tonnage is expected to be generated on this line, and other substantial tonnages of coal are expected to move over this line. According is to the Gillette-Campbell County Planning Commission, annual coal production in Converse and Campbell Counties, Wyoming, the two counties through which the proposed line will run, projected to range from 30.5 to 34.5 million tons in 1980 and from 73 to 83 million tons in 1985. The transportation of this coal will, of course, require the expenditure of substantial sums of money by North Western. Current estimates indicate that North Western will expend in excess of $150 million simply for fixed facilities, including not only the proposed line, but the upgrading of presently existing lines to a quality that will permit repetitive movements of unit trains of this low sulphur coal. In addition, North Western estimates that by the fifth year after the completion of construction of the new line it will require an additional 88 locomotives and an additional 3100 100-ton hopper cars. Most of these hopper cars will probably be purchased, maintained and owned by shippers or receivers interested in the movement of coal. North Western is both willing and able to commit its resources to the transportation of Western coal in addition to all of the other coal it presently transports. This commitment of funds, of course, is in addition to funds which North Western must expend elsewhere on its system in order to assure a continued high level of operating efficiency on other traffic. The effect of the construction and upgrading will be dramatic. According to studies made by the Federal Railroad Administration, a single track railroad with an automatic block signal system has the engineering capability of handling 40 trains per day. With centralized traffic control, this figure rises to 60 trains per day. Each loaded unit train approximates 10,000 tons. The annual capability, therefore, is more than adequate to handle propective shipments. For obvious reasons North Western believes itself not only to have the capability of transporting substantially more tons of coal than it presently handles but believes itself to be fully and completely able to supply any transportation needs which this country may require of it either from origins which it serves directly or from which it forms a through route in connection with other railroads. |