Intermodal Terminals, "Cutoffs" & "Avaliable"?

[greyhounds]

Well now I am still confused. It was mentioned earlier that this train stops, loads, and unloads on it’s trip from Pittsburgh to NJ. The train goes through a name change two times so I just assumed that it stopped in Harrisburg and then Philly would be the only other logical stop. Why you would load a trailer to go such a short distance I don’t know.

I do believe congestion on the mainlines is going the be a larger factor in the speed of the train after the economy rebounds, but also the terminals are a real slow down which needs to be resolved. I did mention in an earlier post they could just couple cars loaded with cargo to Harrisburg on the back of the train and then uncouple them when they arrive & then just couple the Harrisburg loads coupled to the back bound for NJ. I think this would be a lot faster process and be fairly quick.

If Harrisburg is this train’s last stop why does it have three different names?

The train doesn’t have three different names. The freight moves on three different trains. They don’t load/unload the trailers/containers between Pittsburgh and Jersey. They just switch the railcars to different trains.

It’s not a congestion issue or the fact that NS Intermodal Marketing doesn’t know what’s going on. It’s the fact that moving trailer/cotainer freight between the Pittsburgh area and Jersey by over the road trucking is (in general) currently more economically efficient than moving it in intermodal service.

The largest cost element of the intermodal move on this 430 mile route will be the drayage. That’s trucking the tailer/container to the origin intermodal terminal and trucking it from the destination terminal to the consignee. Currently, it’s just cheaper to have the driver take it on to destination. Once he’s hooked to his load he can just go - and at 430 miles there aparently aren’t enough rail line haul miles to produce the savin

[oltmannd]

The train service is actually better than cut-off to availability. Time on the train is about 20 hours Pitcairn to Eport. Looks like the traffic can save a day if the railcar with the Eport traffic is loaded to destination. Sometimes, there is not enough traffic for a whole stack car and the car is loaded to mixed destinations and the “load centered” at Rutherford.

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

Well now I am still confused. It was mentioned earlier that this train stops, loads, and unloads on it’s trip from Pittsburgh to NJ. The train goes through a name change two times so I just assumed that it stopped in Harrisburg and then Philly would be the only other logical stop. Why you would load a trailer to go such a short distance I don’t know.

[snip]

If Harrisburg is this train’s last stop why does it have three different names?

OK - now I see where the confusion might be originating. Harrisburg is not its last stop. The very non-obvious answer is in this excerpt from oltmannd’s post of 11-10-2009 at 8**:29 AM** as follows:

“The service takes so long for two reasons. The first is that Harrisburg has two terminals and this business flow[s] thru both (HH15 is a transfer job between the two locations. I’ve always wondered if it wouldn’t have been better to expand Harrisburg more and not build Rutherford.)”

The 3 trains are as follows

[oltmannd]

Note also that Don also mentioned ‘Erail’ - which is another intermodal terminal in the same general Elizabeth, NJ area

Erail was Conrail’s name for the terminal. Old habits die hard…

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

Well, they must die hard with NS, too.

The schedule referenced by the Original Poster’s was to the ‘‘Elizabeth Marine Terminal, NJ’’ = ‘‘EMT’’ which per the link above is at -

Port Newark
Elizabeth City Marine Complex
Elizabeth, NJ 07201

Also, it seems that NS’ ‘‘Expressrail’’ or ‘‘EXP’’ is there as well.

Directions to Facility: Take I-295 North. Stay straight to go onto New Jersey Turnpike North. Take the exit 13A towards Newark Airport/Elizabeth Seaport. Merge onto NJ-81 North. Take the North Ave West ramp towards Dowd Ave. Merge onto North Ave E. Turn left onto Dowd Ave. Turn right onto Division Street.

‘‘E-Rail, NJ’’ = ‘‘ERL’’ is at, again per its link above -

322 Third Street
Elizabeth, NJ 07206

Directions to Facility: Take New Jersey Turnpike to 13A, follow signs for Jersey Gardens Blvd. Take a right at the 2nd traffic light onto Veterans Memorial Blvd. Take a left at bottom of overpass and bear left.

Similarly, the New York Container Terminal, NY is at -

300 Western Avenue
Staten Island, NY 10303

which is the same or near the Howland Hook Marine Terminal.

NS apparently also has an intermodal terminal at ‘‘NJIT Croxton, NJ’’ = ‘‘NJT’’, which is just a few miles north of Elizabeth/ Port Newark.

• Paul North.