So I really have no clue how much it costs, but I am curious: Say I were to A) Ship a boxcar from Chicago to LA (or insert your own scenario here). How much would that actually cost?
Railroad pricing develops from many elements including value of the commodity being shipped (iron ore vs. finished laundry machines), the railroad’s liability exposure (gravel vs. flammable gas), whether protective services are required like refrigeration, plus the standard elements of weight and distance.
For just a single boxcar of widgets shipped Chicago - BNSF or UP - Los Angeles I’m going to throw out a ballpark figure of $3,000.
Playing around with BNSF’s pricing page at -
http://www.bnsf.com/customers/prices-and-tools/
I got rates from CHI to LA for widgets = “Machinery Dim / Non-Dim” from $8.62 to $9.04 to $10.84 per 100 lbs., in Gons or on Flats, depending on how much is in the carload or shipment. Using the middle figure for a full carload of 100 tons = 200,000 lbs. = 2,000 ‘cwt.’ would be $18,080 if i’m doing the math right. If we take that distance as 2,200 miles, that works out to about 8.2 cents per ton-mile - which is a little higher than what I believe is an average of around 5 cents per ton-mile, but not outrageously so, considering the value of the shipment and maybe some special handling that might be required, etc.
Don’t forget about the door to door aspect…if shipper or receiver doesn’t have a siding of his own then there’s the additional handling and drayage cost to add in on either or both ends. And if the shipper/receiver DOES have a siding then of course the cost of that needs to be factored in too.
Volume is probably a very important consideration in railroad pricing. If you’re shipping only one boxcar the rate per unit would most likely be higher than if you ship several hundred over the year.