So these intermodal schedules look fairly slow to me for a 350 mile distance:
https://fecrwy.com/flexible-schedule/
Yet FEC seems to be making money on the service on a short distance corridor where most Class I railroads can’t seem to? For example, why are there not scheduled intermodal trains between St. Paul and Chicago on CP?
I would opine that it’s not that the trains wouldn’t make money. It’s more like they wouldn’t make enough money…
FEC also has their own trucking company that takes loads from Southern Cities and puts them on FEC trains at Jax. So what appears to be just a 350-mile haul for FEC might actually be double or triple that.
It’s been noted several time in many sources that FEC has a unique situation that makes intermodal more successful. Southern Florida doesn’t originate much freight. Truckers are happy to let FEC take trailers loaded south, empty north so they can avoid paying drivers for a lot of empty miles. Not to mention avoid high fuel costs.
I’d bet the Chicago - Milwaukee lane offers many opprotunities for truckers to find backhaul loads with that area. A lot less empty miles.
Jeff
As a part time Florida resident I can also attest that traffic on I-95 is horrendous, adding to trip time in a truck.
I’ve only been as far south on it as Sarasota (50 miles south of Tampa), and I think traffic is worse south of there, but at times traffic on I-75 is like a 70-mph insane asylum.
Doesn’t most of the FEC intermodal traffic move in giant trains that also haul manifest type traffic? They stop along the way, most of them. Also, it is a single track railroad, so meets slow things a bit. Most run at night, so they aim for early morning terminations. Note also the difference between “Miami” arrivals and “Port of Miami” arrivals. I think trains go to “Miami” with some cars transferred later to the “Port”. It is an interesting operation, with LNG locomotive sets fueled by a tender pulling enormous trains.
SALfan1 - You are correct. Right now I-75 down the west coast of FL from Tampa to Fort Myers and Naples has more of the “Florida Formula 1” feel to it. Traffic moves very quickly on that side. For now, but boy there is a lot of new housing being built.
On I-95 on the east coast of FL, the area is a bit more densely populated than the west side - for now. It seems from about Port St. Lucie on down to Miami, everything is pretty much packed in to within about a 20-mile wide strip between the ocean on the east and low-lying wildlife preserves on the west.
I-95 feels more “bumper-to-bumper” even when traffic is moving. That probably explains why Brightline feels they can make a go of it as a for-profit passenger operation in Southeast Florida.
Also, Brightline is paying for double tracking of the FEC all the way up to Cocoa Beach where it will turn west to Orlando. (Actually back in the day, much of the FEC was double track.)
It will be interesting to see how that works with FEC trains and their timing to enter or leave the double track at Cocoa Beach.
Good coincidence - a well narrated video of Brightline / FEC just popped up in my YT queue.
Two reasons. First BNSF runs a dedicated train pair between the two cities. Second CP feels they can make better use of the yard capacity in Minneapolis with West and East Coast traffic. By that I mean Canadian West and East Coast traffic.
Fortress Investments has said in the past there were a number of other rail corridors in the country that fit their “sweet spot” that they would like to purchase and run OR develope but so far they have not stated what they are beyond the ones in Florida or the LA-Las Vegas route. They are still holding those cards close to the vest as they say. I am curious how far they looked or how in depth they looked outside those two states. Also, curious if Dallas to Houston is on their list because I am pretty confident at this point that Texas Central is going to fall apart and not happen.
Concerning BNSF. Only because UPS pays a premium price for BNSF to short haul Chicago-Twin Cities. If not for UPS this train wouldn’t be in operation.
Didn’t Milwaukee then SOO run Sprints from Chicago to the Twin Cities?
Note that most of the FEC intermodal - and even much of its carload traffic - is really an extension of the longer distance NS or CSX intermodal networks.
'9500, you are correct. They did run Sprinters.
It is too bad Intermodal is not more competitive Economically on that corridor. I-90 Chicago-Madison and I-94 Madison-St Paul is practically wall-to-wall trucks. At least it seems that way.
Yes my family was still living near the mainline when that happened. First it was 3-4 Sprint trains in each direction. Two man crew, 1 GP-40-2, no more than 30 flatcars and they ran at top speed. No double stacks or containers just trailers on flats. After two years it dropped to 2 each way. Then dropped completely before the merger with Soo. Milwaukee was really secretive about if they were profitable. marginal or what. At least 1 of the trains ran at near full capacity all the time. 2 of the four were alway at least half empty at the start then towards the end it looked like their sales effort tapered off, 2 were 2/3 empty, the third was half empty but the fourth was still full or nearly full. In my view they had enough traffic to maintain one in each direction but they inexplicably dropped it.
Going to take a wild guess the terminal costs and space and dedicated employees for just one train a day probably led them to decide it was not worth the bother.
The Sprint trains dropped from three pairs to two pairs rather quickly, it dropped from two pairs to just one pair when the Federal subsidy ended. The final pair lasted until BN outbid Soo for the UPS traffic, and Ford autoparts traffic dwindled. There are photos and videos of single Soo Line SD60s pulling the Sprint train.
Terminal costs and space were definately factors, employees were not a factor since Soo was running three other
I am curious, does CP run double stacks on the Milwaukee to Minneapolis route, does the Tunnel at Tunnel City accomodate double stacks. I was just thinking I don’t think I ever remember seeing a Soo or CP double stack intermodal.
CP doublestacks eastbound at Wisconsin Dells:
Everything is up in the air now and no one knows how it will settle.
Historically, what has greatly limited shorter haul intermodal service were the drayage and terminal costs. A driver goes and gets a load, brings it to the IM terminal, the load is placed on a rail car, the rail car moved to destination terminal, the load removed from the rail car, then delivered by another driver.
With the costs of all that it’s usually been more efficient to just have the first driver hook to the load and drive from Chicago to the Twin Cities. It’s like 420 miles and he’ll be there in eight hours or so. Then he’ll sleep in his truck and pay for his own food.
But, as I mentioned, everything is up in the air now. Diesel fuel is sky high, as are driver wages. The cost of a highway tractor is through the roof. (New or used.)
The tractor costs are a real problem for truckers. Once they buy an expensive tractor, they’ve got a fixed cost to pay off. If we go into a recession diesel fuel can decline in price and driver wages fall, but the costs of that tractor are fixed. If freight rates fall the trucker could be in a real financial bind.
So, who knows? The trucker could just play it safe, and shuttle loads to and from the rail terminal. But then there are issues with rail terminal capacity and equipment supply.
We live in interesting times.
Wages are so ‘through the roof’ that they can’t attract drivers with what they are currently offering.
The entire trucking industry is based on paying drivers as little as possible - heaven forbid that drivers earn enough the be able to afford a life let alone have time enough to be able to live the life they desire to afford.
Great life you are offering Greyhounds - drive 420 miles, sleep in your own truck and pay for ‘truck stop food’, figure out how to get a back haul home. Yep drivers will just knock down the door for that kind of treatment.