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Twin Cities Business - Short Lines, Big Problems http://tcbmag.com/news/articles/2017/June/short-lines,-big-problems "If we lose rail we incur a million extra per year in shipping cost," explains owner John Schwieters. "It is hard to find locations on rail. We went all the way to Rochester looking for viable sites before we came here." LOADMASTER LUBRICANTS LLC manufactures specialty lubricants that are shipped all over the world. It employs 30 in Hugo, and is growing by double-digit percentages. Owner Rick Stewart anticipates 24/7 shifts of 75 to 100 employees with current growth plans. The blunt Alabaman notes he has paid "millions in local taxes" over the past decade. Stewart says he is "waiting to add onto our building until rail issue is settled.... We can do this anywhere. We're here because of rail access. Without it freight costs increase by a factor of five. Freight is [already] a double-digit percentage of overhead." Without rail, "we would relocate the business wherever it best suited us." He scoffs at the suggestion of a state loan program that requires him to contribute to the railroad's repairs. "Why would I invest in something I don't own or control?" he asks. Gohmann fears a loss of rail service would send some of the Hugo Line's shippers into St. Croix County, Wisconsin, where the Union Pacific is soliciting business. The salient contrast with rural short lines is that most of the Hugo line's shippers are located for logistical convenience. It's a marriage that is easily disrupted. "If they were to relocate they might go to Hudson," notes state Rep. Matt Dean (R-Dellwood). "They can move. But a grain elevator in Rock County can't move" As for Hugo, it watches and waits. "We don't fully understand the consequences of abandonment," says Bear, "but we know it entails the risk of business relocation. We've verified the need. The uncomfortable question is public policy." A Railroad Town MORTON, MINNESOTA'S ECONOMY SITS IN SUSPENDED ANIMATION, AWAITING ITS RAILROAD'S FATE. Morton sits on a vein of rock, and the town is adorned with an abundance of granite signage, while older buildings boast outsized granite architectural details and trim. Today Morton is home to several small industrial businesses, a bar, and a couple retail and service businesses. Its downtown feels forlorn, its beautiful art moderne school abandoned and vandalized. In the 1970s, when the Chicago & North Western was still operating its line going to the Twin Cities, Morton had 800 residents. "We had a hotel, Main Street was full," says city clerk/administrator Shirley Dove. "Since then we've seen the schools consolidate, farms consolidate—the county has probably lost half its farms" Morton has lost half its population. Morton was lucky to retain its grain elevator, which stopped shipping by rail when the track fell into disuse between 2000 and 2002. Though the trains have returned in the form of the county -owned Minnesota PrairGl2ii%, the elevator must be A disused elevator in North Redwood Falls redesigned to use them, and owner Harvest Land Co-op will not make the investment until the railroad's future is stabilized. 7 of 9 6/16/17, 11:35 AM