Conclusions and Recommendations

This study provides a great deal of information to policymakers and participants in North Dakota's agricultural economy. As a result of examining the four major issues, several policy implications follow:

• State and local policymakers should consider the location of shuttle train facilities and the location of light rail lines (those less than 90 pounds per yard) in making future highway investment decisions. Highway maintenance costs will increase in areas where new shuttle facilities are located and in areas where light rail is abandoned as a result of an industry shift to larger rail cars.
• A loan guarantee program that eliminates risk to lenders from making long-term loans is likely to improve the viability of some North Dakota rail lines as maintenance and upgrades are required.
• Incremental highway maintenance costs resulting from an industry switch to larger rail cars do not appear to be large enough to justify a statewide subsidy for upgrading rail lines. This does not preclude such subsidies on specific line segments.
• According to a shipper survey performed in this study, an intermodal facility in southeast North Dakota appears to have the greatest traffic potential of any location in the state.
• Policymakers may want to encourage those developing an intermodal facility to locate such a facility near an interstate highway, as such a location would minimize highway impacts from such a facility.
• New value-added processing facilities should take into account labor climate, transportation availability, proximity to markets, quality of life, taxes, supplier locations, and land costs in making location decisions, as these factors can have an important impact on logistics costs.
• The draw area for the shuttle facilities is estimated to be a 60-miles radius. Where shuttle facilities are built, truck traffic over local and state roads in the draw area would significantly increase, requiring additional investment in maintenance and or upgrades for local and state highways.
• Effort should be extended by the N.D. Department of Transportation to work with the grain industry in location decisions for shuttle facilities to ensure the infrastructure is adequate to handle the additional truck traffic.