{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.cramer.senate.gov/news/press-releases/11/10/2023/sen-cramer-rail-companies-issue-status-reports-on-grain-car-backlog", "Sen. Cramer: Rail Companies Issue Status Reports on Grain Car Backlog", "2023-11-10", "2023", "2023-11", "Republican", "Senate", "ND", "Kevin Cramer", "C001096", "www.cramer.senate.gov", "cramer", "https://www.cramer.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "BISMARCK \u2013 U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) announced BNSF Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) publicly filed weekly grain backlog status updates as required by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board (STB). A summary of the reporting data specific to North Dakota from the last 10 weeks is below.\n\nFollowing STB\u2019s April 2022 hearing on \u201cUrgent Issues in Freight Rail Service,\u201d BNSF Railway, CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern Railway, and Union Pacific submitted service recovery plans, which identified actions to improve service and metrics to track progress toward such improvements.\n\nOn June 3, 2022 the STB started requiring BNSF Railway, CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern Railway, and Union Pacific to file service progress reports further explaining efforts to correct service deficiencies. On June 15, 2022, the STB started requiring all Class I railroads to report employment data. The STB extended the initial six-month reporting period for weekly performance and employment data until December 31, 2023. It has since modified CSX's reporting requirements to exempt the railroad from weekly progress reports, as it consistently meets the STB's service improvement targets.\n\nGrain Car Backlog Status Report:\n\nClick here to access the data.\n\nBackground:\n\nIn May 2022, Senator Cramer led 20 colleagues in a letter urging the STB to ensure reliable, consistent rail service for American industries and shippers.\n\n\u201cWe are very concerned over the significant rail service disruptions occurring throughout the U.S. freight rail network. Reports from rail customers, including our manufacturers, farmers, ranchers, and energy producers, indicate reliable rail service is not being provided in many situations,\u201d wrote the senators.\n\nThe letter also outlines concerns and issues raised by customers and labor organizations at STB\u2019s April hearing on \u201cUrgent Issues in Freight Rail Service\u201d from agricultural producers and grain shippers unable to get empty railcars leading to significant delays in delivering commodities to energy producers forced to curtail production due consistently delayed arrival of railcars. Learn more here.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T01:01:09Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.cramer.senate.gov/news/press-releases/11/10/2023/sen-cramer-rail-companies-issue-status-reports-on-grain-car-backlog"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.6671749763190746, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}