Union Pacific broadens restrictions on shipment volumes
– 8/24/2004
Rail carrier Union Pacific said it is broadening the restrictions on volumes it currently has in
place due to extreme increases in demand for its services. The company will implement an
allocation system for certain shipments through key terminals, as well as an overall reduction
in train starts that will likely impact each of the company’s six commodity groups. UP handled
more carloads in the second quarter than in any other quarter in its history and expects the
growth to continue through the peak shipping season, which has impacted the service levels
UP can offer its shippers.
Sounds like the STB needs to reassess the entire merger process. It’s too bad the UP has no major competition to service the customers that the UP is dismissing.
Randy
I don’t know how well that will improve their profit. Why don’t they increase the capacity as it would appear that the investment would pay for it self. They really need to start an engine crew boot camp or something to hurry up in replacing the retiring crews as well as keep up with the demand. They seem to want to operate big or they would have bought the amount of power they have including over 500 SD90s, and 1000+ SD70MACs. They may find that some routes will require extra sidings and multiple track sidings but for now they really need the crews. Too bad they don’t have consription rights.[:D] Of course any BNSF railfan would likely end up being a draft dodger.
Interesting statements on how UP is reducing railcars to increase speeds and maintain the same volume shipped. It also talks about smaller customers being dropped.
An increase in capacity is definitely needed, but that’s the most expensive (and hardest to justify to the bean counters) and least immediate option. Sometimes impossible to accomplish, too, given the constraints of what’s nearby.
I’d love to see CREATE (the plan for streamlining Chicago) take off. They’re saying that, given the money from the Government, this could be done by 2006. Yet, somehow, I don’t think I’ll ever see everything they want to do get done.
I was thinking about this the other night and was wondering if maybe the railroads should get rid of the 50 foot boxcars and replace them with 60 foot high cubes in batches; instead of industries using 40 foot tankers use 50 or 54 foot tankers, use 73 foot centerbeams for lumber instead of 60 foot bulkheads, use articulated autoracks instead of autoracks, use 89 foot flats instead of 60 footer, use 86 foot boxs for autoparts instead of 60 foots, use 71 foot mechanical refers instead of the 57 foot ones; things like that.
Trucking industries might benifit more if they used 53 foot containers on chassis that way UP could stack 2 trailers on 1 railcar instead of 1 trailer with permanent wheels on per railcar.
Instead of having multiple locals to serve a bunch of industries in the same area which require multiple crews and locomotives, if possible have a distrubution center that serves the area and you only need to switch once or twice a day with 1 or 2 locomotives therefore freeing up crews and locomotives for other uses. A distribution centre is cheaper than adding extra track for the industries. Intermodal should be considered a manifest option too. Why should only unit trains and ports handle intermodal? Why can’t a mixed freight handle a couple of intermodal cars too and be taken to the distribution centre? Here is also an interesting thing to think about. For example; Oxford Paper may have say 4 customers in a givin area. They take 2 or 3 box cars each. Instead of shipping paper out using 8 or 12 50 foot boxcars, use 6 or 8 60 foot high cubes. The paper can be unloaded at the distrubution center and organized into desired quantities. Doing this you have reduced train size without eliminating your customer which has allowed you to add other customers that demand your service.
The government must invest into the rail industry. Obviously UP “can not deliver” because they are too big now and don’t have the means to keep up with demand. If the government wants
Im waiting for the bottle to CRACK…If you know what I mean?
I tell you all this much…It’s looking like a very,very ugly end of the year shipping season!
I hoping that there will be a positive and swift resolve to this dilema that UP has. I must say though in a different thread Limitedclear has a very good point about CN not being the only one that derails their trains. Not to be a basher of UP but their trains would get to their destinations quicker if they didn’t derail them so often. I don’t know why. At least with CN, they don’t operate alot of trains in comparison to UP so they don’t effect too much traffic but if someone like UP derails that operates an enormous amount of trains in comparison, you are talking about major back ups and inconvience to customers. Not to mention CN and CP have a lot of lines that they hardly use and often share the lines when they have a derailment. Not saying CN shouldn’t try find the operation as UP. I doubt that UP has a lot of lines in use that is not a major traffic artery.
As a followup: I work in the food distribution industry and quite a bit (50%) of our inbound freight comes via domestic container. Used to be almost totally 53’ PACER or APL via UP to the PNW but recently it has been almost all 53’ HUBU/HUNU cans vis BNSF. UP’s rates were always a bit cheaper so this has to be a result of the impending? meltdown of the UP system?
I’m assuming the capacity problems lie between Texas and California. On a different point, railroads would have to address capacity problems if they didn’t remove lines only to have to put them back in which they have had to do which more costly than leaving them be. They are also too quick to abandon and sell of lines that they must realise they will not may need in the future. This I would suspect is major problem. I don’t know why they won’t sponser ex CN or CP workers from Canada for a green card so they can get the skilled workers they are looking for without having to train them over the much. On UP’s website it says must be American.
What about the issue of UP’s single track mainlines? Wouldn’t the expensive investment of “re-double tracking” help ease its current, borderline meltdown problem?
Plus, years back there was a proposal in which a railroad would be taxed for the right of way land itself rather than the actual tracks themselves. Don’t know if this was at the federal level or state level. In addition to maintenance, many roads single tracked to cut down on tax bills or so this was the claim back in the 80s.
Even with today’s computer dispatching and GPS tracking, the efficiency of single-track Class 1 railroading seems to be eroding very quickly!
I receive 53’ containers via Schneider/UP shipping out of the Seattle Wa. area, they hit the ground in Chicago, and then come east 250 miles or so into the buckeye state. They guarenteed 7 day delivery, in the past 4 weeks the delivery time has almost doubled to 12 days, when I call for answers all I get is an apoligy, and we will do better next time sir, if there is a next time.
Although we are aware of the capacity problems with railroading, we need to be periodically reminded that the entire transportation system in the United States is starting to run out of spare capacity. Trucking is having similar problems although it’s for different reasons (they don’t have enough drivers, among other things). Airlines are also in the same boat (see the imposition of restrictions at Chicago O’Hare). All of the solutions for all of the modes are long-term and it will be several years before additional capacity becomes available, if at all.
I have first hand knowledge of the driver shortage, which has been made far worse with new hours of service rules, but drivers were in short order 5 years ago also, funny how you never hear any media info on this subject. Trucks are also at capacity on highways. It still rings true, “if you bought it a truck brought it.”
The question is…
why is the UP failing so bad?
Is this country loosing it’s faith in the RR’s?
The UP is NOT even trying to make things better for them selves or this country.
The trucking co.'s are growing all because the RR’s are failing.
It makes me sick that they can’t even run their own Railroad the right way.
Main lines are all pluged up. rail yards are cloged.
well never know.