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<br />2-WRW washn x x x transportation <br />will become, if anything, even more fierce, it indicated, on our inland <br />waterways. oThe coal industry would be in direct, head-to-head compe- <br />tition with the grain industry for a limited number of barges at cer- <br />tain times of the year. Several grain producers are currently evalu- <br />ating the benefits of purchasing their own barges in order to assure <br />that they are able to get their product to market at the most advantag- <br />eous time,h the PEA report stated. <br />I30ttlenecks to moving more traffic on inland waterways due to old <br />or inadequate locks, narrow or ..hallow channels or legal battles slow- <br />ing improvements and modernization of waterway facilities will also <br />slow the movement of coal from the North central Plains coal fields to <br />Midwestern and Border South urban areas, it said. <br />The same type of potential competition for rail transport in the <br />Northern Plains and West of the Mississippi River between farm produce <br />and increased coal output also exists.. particularly between small coal <br />coar <br />operators and small farmers. Large/operators can line up large bloc]ts <br />of coal land which justify the use of unit trains. They are routed <br />to bypass switching yards enroute, hence minimize competition wit~rain <br />movements and other freight. There is a trend among large agricultur- <br />al and other large shippers to buy their own freight cars to speed up <br />shipments by rail. '11 <br />W1 move <br />still~ the bulk of the increased production of Western coal/and <br />the bulk or now <br />'western grain and other produce/moves in mixed cargo freight trains. <br />hSeason~ shipments of agricultural products in the west could pro- <br />vide potential interference problems in coal movements," the FEA study <br />said. Grain shipments, in particular, tend to congest facilities, sid- <br />ings and secondary routes, it noted. orf mixed cargo train operations <br />are used to haul large quarnities of Western coal, severe interference <br />problems with agricultural shipments could develop at some times and <br />places," it said, along Western and Midwestern rail routes. Coal would <br />ma}. or <br />be a new competitor for space on most western railroads, which have not <br />historically carried much coal, it pointed out. Nationally railroads <br />move abOut 20 perceRdicRf all of the coal shipped in the country, but <br />it Das accounted for.aYsmaller percentage of traffic on Western rail- <br />roads, the study 1nd1cated. <br /> <br />Q~72 <br /> <br />" <br /> <br />.' <br /> <br />',>, <br />