Question:
"The Powder River Basin coal fits both of those bills, and that's
certainly driving our decision to come to Wyoming," Schieffer said.
Schieffer and other company officers plan to hold public meetings in
Wyoming to learn which of the proposed routes would work the best,
Schieffer said.
Because the railroads now serving the area only meet about half the
demand in the East for Wyoming coal, DM&E would not be competing against
the UP and Burlington Northern lines now running from the basin, he
added.
Answer:
DM&E connects with CP at Winona, Minnesota (they interchange quite a bit
of traffic there, currently).
DM&E connects with IC just south of Albert Lea, Minnesota at Glenville,
Minnesota via UP's Spine Line.
DM&E will connect with I&M RailLink at Owatonna, Minnesota once IMRL gets
the Blooming Prairie to Northfield, Minnesota line back into shape.
I'd look for CP to be a major interchange partner for coal at Winona.
Also, IC is a possibility.
There was a long article on DM&E's plans in the Tuesday (6/10) Mankato
Free Press (the newspaper for Mankato, Minnesota). While I don't want
to put the whole article here (no time and copyright issues), here are
some of the points made in the story. Lynn Anderson (DM&E spokesman)
and Kevin Schieffer (DM&E president) are the major sources for the
story.
* Schieffer said that much of the coal would be shipped via the
Mississippi River, with plants in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the Great
Lakes region being the primary target market.
* DM&E is planning on upgrading the tracks to allow 45 to 49 mph to cut
the average trip from Belle Forche to Winona from the 150 hours it
takes now to 17 hours with two crew changes en route.
* The plan involves building a bypass around Mankato to avoid both the
delays getting through town and the surcharges that UP charges to use
their tracks. The Mankato bypass would not remove all DM&E traffic on
the UP through Mankato because of the need to interchange with the UP
in Mankato.
* While the DM&E is saying that capturing just 5% of the coal coming
out of the Powder River Basin would cover the costs of the extension
and upgrade, their target is to capture 20%.
