THE WINONA, ST. PETER, AND PACIFIC. Granger railroads are no longer the weaklings of the industry. Ethanol production and distribution has the potential to provide a modern version of the elevator-and-red-boxcar system of years ago. Powder River Basin coal is a reality. At present, Union Pacific and Burlington Northern ("BNSF," meaning nothing, and "CN," also meaning nothing, are only slightly less obnoxious than the designated-hitter rule) jointly operate the one rail link from the coal fields to the rest of the rail network. Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern, the owner of several Chicago and North Western and Milwaukee Road secondary mains in the upper Midwest, including the Winona & St. Peter, intends to build its own line to the coal fields. The expected increase in traffic is not sitting well with all the railroad's neighbors.

[A] plan by the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad (DM&E) to run mile-long trains loaded with coal through here daily has fueled a bitter eight-year battle pitting [Rochester's Mayo Clinic] and its hometown against a growing railroad.

On one side is DM&E, which is based in Sioux Falls, S.D. It wants to expand into a 2,762-mile network carrying coal from Wyoming's Powder River Basin. DM&E President Kevin Schieffer says eight coal trains could come through here daily.

Dozens of towns, farm bureaus, electric utilities and economic development groups support the expansion. Schieffer says it "serves a compelling national interest."

On the other side are Rochester's Chamber of Commerce, city and county governments and the Mayo Clinic — this city's biggest employer. They say as many as 34 trains could come through a day, blocking traffic and emergency vehicles. Because the trains could carry hazardous materials as well as coal, they also worry that a derailment would prompt Mayo's patients to go elsewhere, which could ruin the local economy.

"If a spill should occur, it would be international news," says Kenneth Brown, chairman of the Olmsted County Board of Commissioners. "Then when somebody needs to go to the doctor, they'll say, 'Maybe I should go to the Cleveland Clinic or Johns Hopkins.' "

Thirty-four trains is no big deal, and perhaps the folks at the Mayo Clinic ought to look closely at the New York Central Lakefront Line, through Cleveland, or Baltimore & Ohio's tunnels under Baltimore, and read some of the stencils on tank cars going there, before fretting about a few more coal trains, and potential competition on unit train rates.

The potential choke point on the DM&E is likely to be Mankato, where the lines cross, rather than Rochester in any event. College towns with lots of trains ... we know how to cope with that. With the opening of the Rochelle container yard, there are close to 100 movements a day through DeKalb, many of which are picking up speed after a lunch break (otherwise known as the dispatcher hasn't been working well with the yardmaster.)

More to the point might be the pricing problems to emerge as regional railroads challenge Burlington and Union Pacific. The completion of the Union Pacific led to competition among the existing Chicago-Council Bluffs railroads to haul the coastal traffic, competition that was sometimes tamed by collusive agreements, collusive agreements that were undone by additional railroads, additional railroads that sometimes offered shippers at intermediate destinations a break on rates by the construction of branch lines, leading to additional collusive agreements, which under one interpretation of history midwived rate regulation, ostensibly in the public interest, in practice to turn the collusive agreements into cartels. Those that do not remember the past ...