Burlington Northern Santa Fe has taken root in Houston instead
To hear longtime employees tell it, the revival in the mid-1990s of the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad owed in no small part to the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway.
View full sizeNew Orleans Public Belt Railroad officials have vowed to woo back Burlington Northern. In fact, a report to commissioners indicates that administrators have offered a deal to increase the number of Burlington Northern train cars handled monthly by the Public Belt from 80 to at least 3,000. But a Burlington Northern official suggested that commissioners shouldn't hold their breath."In the days prior to the BN being here in 1995, this railroad was falling apart," Interim General Manager John Morrow told the city-owned railroad's board Thursday.
"They re-birthed us, if that's correct language, and brought us back to where we are today," he said.
More recently, however, the Public Belt's erstwhile savior slashed the size of its New Orleans account, and according to a top Burlington Northern official, the business is unlikely to rebound.
Burlington Northern by 2007 had become by far the Public Belt's biggest customer, accounting for nearly half of its $20.8 million income from train operations that year. The carrier used the Public Belt to shuffle its train cars from tracks it owned to those owned by other major carriers, a process known as switching.
But Public Belt officials around the same time began slapping Burlington Northern with a series of rate increases that eventually drove the carrier to minimize its business with the Public Belt and build its own rail yard outside Houston to sort train cars.
Then-General Manager Jim Bridger, who resigned last month amid revelations that he habitually spent public money for personal purposes, has said he jacked up Burlington Northern's rates because the company's trains consistently arrived hours late, throwing off other clients' schedules.
Bridger said he expected increased business with two other carriers to cover the difference, but the economic downturn foiled his strategy.
But Rollin Bredenberg, Burlington Northern's vice president for service design and performance, told the Public Belt board Thursday that he and his colleagues suspected Bridger and a few unspecified commissioners simply wanted to get rid of the Burlington account.
"Even with the last (rate) increase, we got the clear indication that even if we accepted that increase, there would be more to come until we did take our business down," said Rollin Bredenberg, Burlington Northern's vice president for service design and performance.
Some Public Belt employees agree with that assessment.
"Management did a brilliant job convincing the commission that the BNSF was a villain," said David Duplechain, the general chairman of the agency's transportation employees union. "After 100 years, management and a few select commissioners believed that they had captured lightning in a bottle: They had discovered the only passage in the freight industry that would allow traffic to move from the east coast to the west coast. It was just a matter of time before the BNSF would come crawling back, begging to do business with the Public Belt again.
"The departure of the BNSF came at a convenient time to float one excuse after another about a bad economy," Duplechain said.
Trying to win back business
Since Bridger's departure -- along with the resignation of all 14 board members who oversaw his tenure -- Public Belt officials have vowed to woo back Burlington Northern. In fact, a report to commissioners indicates that administrators have offered a deal to increase the number of Burlington Northern train cars handled monthly by the Public Belt from 80 to at least 3,000.
But Bredenberg, addressing the slate of new board members appointed in recent weeks by Mayor Mitch Landrieu, suggested that commissioners shouldn't hold their breath.
"We're at a point now where we have invested in that infrastructure," he said, referring to the Houston-area facility. "It would be awfully difficult, in my opinion, for the NOPB to come up with a price that would cause us to walk away from the investment that we have already put in the ground."
Bredenberg also noted that Burlington North had deeper concerns about the Public Belt.
"The way the railroad was run, the way it was operated and the rate at which it ran off cash ... made us scared to death of the governance of the NOPB," he said. "We thought that ... we could wind up coming to depend on the NOPB to provide a service and then have the rug pulled out from under us."
Even so, Bredenberg said his company hasn't written off the Public Belt.
"We have to make sure before we come back to the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad with anything that there is a sound and secure governance and management of the railroad," he said.
'Don't give up on us yet'
Former Mayor Sidney Barthelemy, who serves as the acting president of the Public Belt board, said that's the new board's objective.
"We assure you that the Public Belt Railroad will become a stable management commission that will serve its clientele," he said. "So don't give up on us yet. We can assure you that it's going to get better."
Bredenberg said his company has "a lot of confidence" in a plan floated Thursday that would divide control of Public Belt operations among city officials and representatives of the six Class One railroad companies that use it.
In pitching the idea, Union Pacific Railroad spokesman Drew Tessier pointed to six "terminal companies" in Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City and Indiana that are owned or operated by their railroad customers. Bredenberg cited railroads in ports in Houston, Los Angeles and Tacoma, Wash., that are publicly owned but operated by the companies that use them.
"All six Class Ones, partnering together with the city of New Orleans, managing this asset, in our opinion, would be the best decision," Tessier said. "We need to be sitting at the table in all future decisions on it because we are the customers."
Commissioners did not immediately weigh in on the recommendation, which Tessier offered without details beyond the general concept.
Michelle Krupa can be reached at mkrupa@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3312.