I have noticed that BNS has a lot of truck-trailer trains that come through
Rochelle. UP has primarily containers. Is that just a coincidence or a
type of shipping to Chicago through truck contracts [?]
It’s not a coincidence. In general, anything moving in a trailer is paying a higher rate to the railroad than anything moving in a container. As you can see, the amount of resources it takes to move a trailer is a lot more than it is to move a container – the trailers don’t pack densely onto a train. So the trailer has to pay more money. The only way the trailer can pay more money is if the freight it hauls is worth more money. And if it’s paying more money, it wants, and receives, better service.
The difference you’re seeing at Rochelle has to do with the relative geography of the two railroads, which in turn influences the service they can offer, and the rates they can charge. The BNSF route through Rochelle essentially extends to Denver, the Twin Cities, and Seattle, and BNSF has relatively low traffic densities on that line and thus can offer the reliable, fast service that it takes to attract high-rate trailer traffic. The UP line through Rochelle is carrying all of UP’s traffic to Chicago, save for what comes up from the Gulf Coast and the Southwest on the C&EI and former SPCSL into Chicago’s south side. So it’s going to be dominated by its west coast traffic, which is primarily container. Why? Because UP to the west coast is pretty much a single-track railroad and congested, so it can’t so easily offer the reliable, high-speed service it takes to attract trailer traffic. It can compete for the lower-rate container traffic just fine, becaue the containers don’t have to move as fast or as consistently.
The two railroads through Rochelle are not exactly comparable, because you’re seeing only BNSF’s Central Corridor and Northern Corridor business through Rochelle – and not its Southern Corridor business, which is about 2.5 to 3 times as much as the other two put together. However, UP’s traffic through Rochelle is all of UP’s west coast traffic, except for the St. Louis and C&EI gateway stuff. It’s an apples and oranges comparison. If you added all the traffic to Chicag
Got to disagree on this one.
BNSF intermodal runs the old ATSF route between Chicago and Denver. Doesn’t go through Rochelle.
I was a traffic manager for some years for a major steamship line. The key for the SS lines to reduce there costs is to induce carloaders to utlize there containers for domestic loads WB as their is a hugh inbalance of loaded containers coming EB vs export containers going WB. From watching the Ft, Madison wecam you can see several UPRR WB doublestacks going by on the BNSF transcon with “Stack Train” containers who are a domestic carloader. Also when I was in Colton I have video of these trains coming off the Sunset route moving WB onto the BNSF line to Riverside where they then go back to the UPRR own tracks to get to the @ Washington street. yard in ELAX. To sum it it maybe the BNSF has more TOFC traffic due to UPS while the UPRR has more domestic double stack biz which is the reason you see more containers on the UPRR & more TOFC on BNSF.
I believe that is the answer. You are seeing domestic business on BNSF and mostly overseas business on UP.
Yeah, greyhounds, you’re right that BNSF intermodal to Denver doesn’t go through Rochelle. What was I thinking! But it doesn’t go via the Santa Fe, either, at least beyond Galesburg. It goes via Galesburg and then CB&Q all the way from there, via Creston, Lincoln, McCook, Brush, and into Denver. I don’t think there’s been any BNSF intermodal between Chicago and Denver via the Santa Fe (beyond Galesburg), ever. Santa Fe gave up on that long ago, 1980s as I recall. There’s some double-stack on the Joint Line, but it’s Texas-Pacific Northwest traffic.
Fort Madison web cam???
Where can I find that located (and dont get smart and reply “Ft Madison”).
Thanks,
ed
so on average, east of galesburg…how much traffic and what kind of variety is there on the ex-ATSF and the ex-CB&Q…?
go to live trains. com and the web cam is located there
Thanks for the great information. There are container trains that run through
Rochelle on BNS. Thanks again.