“If high speed passenger trains are a hard sell in the U.S., how about high speed passenger/freight trains? FedEx has approached France#8217;s Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Transport about creating a freight component of the 200-mph TGV system. It would involve extending TGV track from a passenger terminal at Charles de Gaulle Airport to FedEx#8217;s European hub at the airport, which handles over one thousand tons of package freight a day, and designing specialty rolling stock.”
In retrospect, it is suprising that it took time sensitive shippers this long to broach this concept. Could this be the key to making high speed rail profitable?
What has always intrigued me is how the philosophical aspects of railroading, the ability to carry bulk commodities at speed, has not been exploited in the U.S. We do a great job of carrying 15,000 tons of low value/low margin products at an average of 23 miles an hour, but when it comes to carrying time sensitive cargo at a speed which the time sensitive shipper demands, we fail miserably despite the higher profit margins. Perhaps the two aspects are diametrically opposed, yet the evolution of the overseas rail systems are begining to approach the original theoretical framework.
It would be ironic (and a bit of a disgrace) if it was the French who discover how to me***he two into a profitable cohesive system.
While I don’t have any inside information, it looks like the FedEx inquiry is simply a logical follow on to the existing La Poste (SP?) TGV’s operated by the French Postal Service.
The Dutch have had PTT Trains for years and the Royal Mail is supposedly resuming some of their dedicated mail trains after having pulled them out of service.
US railroads do have time-sensitive freight in the various auto-parts units whereby the parts arrive just-in-time at the assembly plants. The UPS coast-to-coast trains have also met with limited success, mainly due to the extraordinary effort at getting the trains “over the railroad(s)” on the required schedule.
I remember back in the 70’s listening to a produce broker who was a friend of my Dad describe how, in its prime, the Illinois Central would transport express cars of in-season, highly perishable strawberries like clockwork overnight from north of Lake Ponchartrain in Lousiana to Chicago on their crack passenger trains. He absolutely could depend on his customers receiving their product on the advertised at the Chicago produce market.
An example of railroads demonstrating that they moved time-sensitive goods with great skill.
Fed Ex seems to be asking to haul package freight on the TGV system.Light freight and express should be compatable without causing problems.This would not be like hauling coal or heavy freight trains over this line.
As far as I know, FedEx in the USA is completely truck and plane. Long distance stuff goes air via the Memphis hub, local stuff in an area is direct truck. I often thought this would be a good market for Triple Crown if they had a National system.
The problems with moving time sensitive freight by the airlines caused the company I work for to quit the business… Our treasured freight was either snowed in, temperatures were too hot, and/or bumped for passengers luggage… Nevermind our company was paying $20 million a year in air freight, we were treated no better by the airllines staff than if we were shipping our pet dog…
What really drove the executives at my company mad were their pricing schedule… which was very similar to airline seating… For example, with Expedia, if I wanted to fly to a funeral on a day’s notice from Dallas to Las Vegas, I can fly for around $230, however, if the funeral was in Reno, the cheapest non stop flight is $750… With ground transpotration, pricing is ussally reflected in miles…
When Amtrak attempted to get into the express business a few years ago, many of the beer companies got involved… They could move a carload or two of time sensitive beer, yes beer, quickly to the west coast from breweries on the east coast or from the Midwest…quicker and cheaper by Amtrak than by over the road truck drivers… However, to be successful Amtrak needed to have brought the product close to an on time schedule… The failure in this venture was the inability to get there on time…notably the Sunset Limited arriving 8-10 hours late… And the beer companies were intersted at Amtrak’s average transcontinental speed of 40 mph… Imagine if the speed was 90 mph, or even HSR’s 150 mph…
In America, both UPS and FedEx would be interested in HSR, moving time sensitive freight via a ground network between major cities… Imagine if HSR was built between New York City and Chicago, being able to move goods by ground the 800 mile distance in less than 6 hours, literally overnight…
The railroads have missed this golden opportunity… to underprice and outperform the airlines moving freight quickly… Nothing less than a dedicated HSR net
We may not be able to handle 200 mph stuff yet, but remember that the original Zephyrs and steam powered Hiawathas were averaging over 75 mph and reaching speeds of 100+ mph over jointed rail, using 1930’s technology, with no tilting technology, and with standard grade crossings.
It is a testament of underperformance that todays railroads can only average 23 mph and even Amtrak only averages 40 mph. Trucks average 50 to 60 mph, and remember highways have a natural speed limit that cannot exceed 70 to 80 mph without serious compromises to safety. Standard railroad technology in theory should allow 100+ mph operation without serious safety compromises or overly expensive infrastructure upgrades. If the railroads could do that, they would be in position to capture most of the time sensitive traffic crossing our country in trucks.
To emphasize Mr. Husman’s point, and to borrow from Mr. Oltmann, the breweries have access to the same capital markets as everyone else. If high-speed service was really that valuable to them or to Mr. Clark’s employers, they could buy their own airplanes, or built their own railroad. Since they aren’t, I can only conclude that what they really want is Saks 5th Avenue service at Bob’s Bargain Barn prices. I’m not feeling sorry for them.
The only problem I see with high speed freight is that heavy freight trains do more damage to the track.HSR track would have to be built to heavier standards to accomodate it, and there would be more maintinance needed.
You, like so many other conventional railroaders, live in a fantasy world, in that you think your industry is just like any other industry, thus subject to the same laws of capital.
Here’s a quiz for you: What other industries besides railroads have been given land grants in the history of the U.S.?
To state flippantly that shippers shoud just build their own railroad denies the reality of how todays railroads came about in the first place. Today’s railroads did not come about due to the demands of the free market, they came about due to the inducements of the federal government. If indeed you would like to see shippers enter the railroad business themselves, they’re going to need either inducement to build their own lines, or equal access to existing lines.
Lets see…
way back when…
4 or 5 trains a day, doing 100mph…all passenger runs…costing the railroad money each train.
Which means they ran the 4 or 5 freight trains in between them, oh, say about 45 mph.
Versus today, 50 trains a day all twice as long as in the old days, all freight(read making money there) moving at 23 miles per hour…
Futuremodal asked:
“Here’s a quiz for you: What other industries besides railroads have been given land grants in the history of the U.S.?”
Here’s a quiz back at you: What other transportation modes have had to build their own transportation systems?
How many trucking companies have had to build and maintain an interstate highway? How many airlines have had to build and maintain their own airports and navigation systems?
How many barge lines have had to build and maintain their own waterways?
The answer (except for a few canal boat systems) is none of them. In every case the Federal Government built and maintained the infrastructure for the airlines, truckers and barges…
So my answer to your question is :
The other trainsporations modes were all given de facto “Land Grants” that were even more valuable than the ones given to the railroads. The railroads were merely given part of the right of way, they had to actually pay for the construction of the transportation network and have had to maintain it. The other transportation modes weren’t given ownership of the land, but the Federal Government absorbed all the costs of the acquiring the land, building the transportation network and maintaining it.
The government gave the railroads an egg and a strip of bacon and said “Go make breakfast”. The government took the trucking companies, the airlines and the barge operators to Denny’s and said “Put it on my tab”.