More facts are needed by this clueless writer after taking the emotional content out of the problem ( overcompensated executives, short sighted route closures,reinvestment in a road versus stock value etc ) What is the cost in terms of not increasing capacity and traffic flow in terms of the bottom line? I have no idea. I am woefully ignorant ofhe business side of railroading and am not afraid to say so.
Are there penalties involved against the carriers with these contracted services in terms of failing to perform on a timely basis? If they are bulk unit movements like containers, coal etc, is there really a cost effective alternative to rail. I don’t know but I would tend to doubt it. Is most of the traffic really time sensitive? Its abit off topic, but I got a good chuckle about grain farmers in Montana ( one of the least populated states) getting riled about rates and the grandstanding governer (who is really powerless) making the classic riff of feigned indignity to get the headlines in big urban centers like kalispell and Buffalo Jump.And so it goes. .
Oh no! Not that! Not again!
He brought up the Montana Wheat Rates. And baseball is about to start. I was so looking forward to the next few days and now this.
Yes. No. Maybe. Not necessarily in that order.
The income generated by increased capacity has to be balanced against the cost of providing that capacity. As seems to be the case with the Abo Canyon issue (see the other thread), so far the cost seems to be worth what having the double track will yield in expanded capacity.
Many the rail customer who has said that he’d rather have consistent service than fast service - that is to say that he doesn’t care if the load takes days or weeks to reach him, as long as he has time to process it before the next load. Of course, there are a number of factors there, but that’s a simple point of view.
Some cargo is time sensitive (mail, package services, perishables), but for the most part, lumber, sneakers, and coal don’t demand priority handling (unless those are those new sneakers, in which case we want them to get to the store!)
I believe you’ll find that the time sensitive cargos have contract provisions regarding performance, and very likely penalties if those provisions aren’t met.
For some bulk cargos, barges are a legitimate option, assuming there is a waterway between source and destination. Trucks can sometimes serve admirably, but running the truck equivalent of a 100 car coal unit train would put a lot of rubber on the road. On the other hand, sometimes it’s more economical to truck the product to central collection points, instead of hauling rail cars willy-nilly around the countryside.
I’m not going to get into the Montana issue. I suspect both sides can offer legitimate arguments. You might compare the issue to airline fares, though. Your full-fare last-minute ticket is subsidizing the purchased-three-months-ago, bargain-basement-price ticket of the guy sitting next to you. And the only reason people can afford to fly out of the Podunk airport is because there is a government subsidy. If they had to pay what it really cost to fly them out of there, they would find other
greyhounds
What you need to do is post about 5 graphs on the politics and religous beliefs that go with this topic. Then Bergie will lock or delete the thread and you will be free to catch season openers all week long. [(-D][(-D][(-D]
Jay
I have wracked the few functioning brain cells I have left on the burning issue of Montana Grain Farmers in terms of poltical, religious, socio economic, philosophic,cultural, scientific,governmental impact and I never knew my ticket ouf Podunk Airport was subsidized. My faith in the free market is rocked.I was kidding myself about the death of the low carb diet and resurgence of Wonder Bread, and was seriously considering making ethanol to ship east, but now Ill have to wait for hours at the shuttered Amtrak flagstop for the Superliner thats 12 hours late due to capacity problems.
I wouldn’t expect factually concise answers here, it’s a forum not a reference desk – long on opinions short on facts. Some topics are just too general in scope to be addressable in a forum. Asking the questions is easy, writing them is hard! You need to go to a good research library, such as at a business school, to access specialist books and publications. Or have you tried Google?
I can give you a real world example of time sensitive shipments…grain bound for shipment via ocean going ships.
I work for a terminal switching railroad; we handle almost all the traffic into and out of the Houston Ship Channel.
Cargill has an elevator at Jacinto port we serve.
By contract, we have exclusive right to service that elevator, from our North Yard.
Class 1s bring us the unit grain train, we take it from North Yard to the elevator.
If we turn the train in 24 hours or less, we get an hefty additional switching fee.
(read executive bonus!)
By turn I mean deliver the loaded train, and return it empty to North Yard ready for the class 1 crew to man.
Our clock starts the moment the Class 1 crew exits the train.
Once we spot the train in the elevator, our clock stops, and Cargill’s clock starts.
Their time is constricted by several factors, not the least of which are is the ship ready, and has the buyer accepted the cargo ship as is…(is it clean, is the crew acceptable, is it ready to depart, or does the ship need service…)weather plays a factor too…once Cargill releases the empty train to us, our clock starts up again, and what ever time remaining is what we have to get the empty back to North Yard, do an initial terminal air test, and have it ready for a Class 1 carrier’s crew.
Technically, our clock stops at the time listed on the IT Air Test slip.
If we hit that 24 hour window, the shipper pays extra.
This is such a major concern, due to the shortage of grain cars, that BNSF is building two new sidings at Jacinto port, both capable of holding 120 cars unit trains and locomotives, for their exclusive use, and have modified the bonus contract to include deliver to these sidings, as opposed to actual spotting the train in the elevator.
Currently, we use our two main lines for this move.
To expedite the movement of these trains, right now we pull an empty out
Thanks Ed. You made the situation easy for me to understand in how all this is put together.
That’s the big problem for Union Pacific right now. They need to double track the Sunset route, but with borrowed money. The cost of capital is too high right now for them to do it all.
BNSF, UP, CSX, NS and CP all had slower train speeds in 2005 over 2004 because of capacity problems.
CN has extra capacity and had higher speeds in 2005. That’s one of the reasons for their 61% operating ratio.