Reason #1 Why I Love To Blog -- Hearing From Readers -- Correcting The Record -- November 15, 2021

Remember that story on the longest unit train in Honeyford, ND, setting a US record for length? I went back and re-read the story and re-watched the video after receiving a comment from a reader. There was some ambiguity with regard to the report in light of the reader's comment. Perhaps the record meant that this was the longest train to be filled by one privately-own agricultural co-op. I don't know.

But the reader is entirely correct. The story was certainly misleading if not entirely wrong. Trains much longer than this are being run routinely, i.e., daily across Canada and the US. 

Exhibit A: a GAO white paper, dated May, 2019. This will load as a pdf. From the report:

According to officials from all seven Class I freight railroads and representatives from AAR, FRA, STB, and other stakeholders we interviewed, freight train-length has increased in recent years; however, the data are limited. 

According to data that two Class I railroads provided to us, their average train length increased over the 10-year period of 2008 through 2017 by about 1,500 feet for one railroad (from about 6,000 to 7,500 feet, or up to about 1.4 miles) and about 1,200 feet for the other railroad (from about 4,900 to 6,100 feet, or up to about 1.2 miles). These data represent an increase in the average length of a train of about 25 percent for both railroads. 

Two additional Class I railroads reported average train lengths between about 5,800 and 6,600 feet for the year 2017.

Officials from two Class I railroads stated that operating longer trains is not a new practice, and one official noted that the railroad has been operating trains in excess of 10,000 feet in selected rail corridors for almost 30 years. Officials from AAR added that increases in train length over time have likely been gradual.

While two Class I railroads provided data on average freight train-length over time, officials from each of the seven Class I railroads stated that they operate longer trains. 

Railroad officials said they operate these trains in certain rail corridors that have the capacity to accommodate longer trains, and not over their entire rail networks. For example, officials from one Class I railroad said they are running on a daily basis a 12,000-foot train—which is about 2.3 miles long—and another reported that twice weekly it operates a 16,000-foot train—which is about 3 miles long—on a route linking the mid-west to the west coast. 

Both of these Class I railroads noted that longer trains such as these are a small percentage of the trains they operate. More specifically, one of these railroads reported that over the previous 24 months, about 1 percent of its train-miles were traveled by trains over 10,000 feet long, and the other reported that about 2 percent of its current train-miles were traveled by trains over 10,000 feet long.

So, there you have it. I have no idea what "record was set" in Honeyford, but certainly not the record implied or inferred.