SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO AM) - According to agriculture officials, the cost of rail cars for grain is rising as much as forty cents a bushel despite low demand for box cars.
Senator John Thune says rail traffic from North Dakota's oil patch is significantly lower.
Thune says commodity prices are awful and when they're combined with increased transporation costs producers lose even more money in the harvest.
Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, Thune says the trend isn't following supply and demand.
He says normally when there's high demand prices go up. Right now, he says, there's low demand and supply is increasing daily. He says a lot of railroads geared up years ago when the Bakken oil patch was running at peak production.
Thune says he'll ask the Surface Transportation Board to watch rail surcharges.
(Thanks Jerry Oster, WNAX Yankton)