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U.S. Postal Service studies intermodal expansion
Well isn’t that special? The USPS has been losing money for years and only now has interest in Intermodal. Of course they are a government agency with no profit motive so it is easy to miss little things like a great big train hauling moutains of trailer/container loads of of freight for virtually everyone else
Well isn’t that special? The USPS has been losing money for years and only now has interest in Intermodal. Of course they are a government agency with no profit motive so it is easy to miss little things like a great big train hauling moutains of trailer/container loads of of freight for virtually everyone else
Bring back the RPO.
Or put the mail back on your own Amtrak trains.
You’re kidding, USPS isn’t using intermodal already? Why not? How about if USPS maximizes their use of intermodal and passes the savings along to its customers, esp shippers of small package?. Many small products on ebay (e.g., low-price model rr freight cars) cost more to ship than the value of the item, it would be great if we could fix this. Inyermodal’s worked for UPS for years (as the article points out), WAKE UP USPS!!
How interestingly ironic that mail once left the rails because trucks were supposedly better, but now mail might come back to the rails because trucks aren’t the answer!
Hope this won’t effect the moving of the USPS facility from Boston’s South Station or New York’s Farley Building.
This is probably the only part of the failed Amtrak Express Program that could have worked really well if it was kept and developed.
Needless to say, here is much needed additional revenue for Amtrak over the entire system (except perhaps for tri-weekly trains which might benefit by becoming dailies with Postal contracts).
Pretty awesome news, looks like USPS will come full circle with mail going back to trains for travel between cities. The best news of the study is that the more shipments that go intermodal, the more savings will be realized. It’s win-win for everyone except for a few truck drivers who could be laid off; but then agian, the trucking industry also has a major driver shortage, so finding replacement shouldn’t be too difficult.
Sounds like a grand plan. Amtrak would be a natural partner as neither are totally governmental nor privately owned. USPS would save money attaching a dozen cars each carrying two containers on long and medium distant, Amtrak would earn needed income. Both could become less dependant on Uncle Sugar for assistance. Biggest opponent would be the Class 1 carriers who would not welcome longer Amtrak trains or more of them.
Sounds like a grand plan. Amtrak would be a natural partner as neither are totally governmental nor privately owned. USPS would save money attaching a dozen cars each carrying two containers on long and medium distant, Amtrak would earn needed income. Both could become less dependant on Uncle Sugar for assistance. Biggest opponent would be the Class 1 carriers who would not welcome longer Amtrak trains or more of them.
'bout time!
USPS tried this with AMTRAK several years ago, Amtrak failed to provide service needed. USPS would be making prifit if did not have to pre-fund health insurance (by act of congress) of employees for next 75 years. That costs them $5 BILLION per year.You know of any other business that has to do this?
Times change and the past looks pretty good, when it comes
to possibly re-kindling a mail contract once again with Amtrak. Let’s hope so.
I know that having Amtrak trains pulling mail and all kinds of express didn’t work out before, or at least David Gunn didn’t think it did, but I really think that Amtrak and the USPS sould revisit and research the idea again, this time looking at how it can be done better than before. If somehow bringing back the RPO is an option then perhaps an automated or semi-automated version just might work.
Long overdue move, but I doubt any benefit for Amtrak. I assume USPS containers would move on the same high priority trains as UPS and others.
I’m wondering what took them so long to come to this conclusion since the USPS has been in the red for years!
What a concept! Using the rails to move mail… I seem to remember a time you could actually post a letter by sliding it through the slot on a car marked “RPO”.
Seriously, Amtrak could easily move sealed mail cars NY-CHI or CHI-LA. TOFC would be a snap.
To be repetitive, its about time they woke up to the ecomomies of scale. Intermodal is more dependable then ever.
Mail went to the trucks because trucks became more dependable than the fast becoming undependable passenger trains. Especially east of Chicago. But that was back in the day when people actually wanted to perform actual work and truck drivers were easy to get. Today due to big government regulations and liability, trucking companies are looking for safe and dependable drivers despite the high unemployment. The key here is “safe and dependable.” Many of the unemployed are unable to fulfill that requirement. Many more don’t want to get their hands dirty. So we get a truck driver shortage. The trucks and trailers are still very dependable mechanical devices.
One key point here that everybody seems to miss is an opportunity to legitimize and legalize Amtrak as far as the Constitution is concerned. Right now the way things stand, Amtrak is unconstitutional. Government is not allowed to transport people. Read the Constitution, Article 1, Section 8. However, if you are really good at reading comprehension like the early Americans were, you will find in Article 1 Section 8 that post offices and post roads fall under the jurisdiction of the Federal Government. This means that if the Post Office were to take some of the mail off of long distance trucks and put it on Amtrak, Amtrak would be legitimized and legal. But most people who foam over Amtrak can’t find a loophole if you hand it to them on a platter with nothing else on the platter because they are too busy defending another government failure.
The Post Office taking this long to figure out intermodal can be traced back to who is running the Post Office. Big government. Constitutionally but very sloppily. Plus government has yet to figure out that you can send an email much faster and more dependably than a letter could ever hope for. The is, unless somebody figures out how to make Star Trek technology work. Big government and the people who work in it are like the mainstream media. Change has happened and they are unwilling to