Officials from North Dakota and other upper Midwestern states today urged U.S. regulators to pressure railroads to fix the logjams that are blocking grain shipments as harvest season approaches. Congestion on the rail lines operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. (CP) and Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s (BRK/A) BNSF railroad, caused by a harsh winter and growing demand for railcars to accommodate North Dakota’s oil boom, is already costing farmers millions of dollars, U.S. Senator John Hoeven, a Republican, told the Surface Transportation Board at a Fargo, North Dakota, hearing. As grain produced last year sits in storage, waiting for trains to carry the crops to market, the bottlenecks may get worse without immediate steps as an anticipated record grain harvest begins, officials warned. “There’s great apprehension in how things will go this fall,” said Governor Jack Dalrymple, a Republican, said. The board ordered the rail lines in June to provide […]