Those of you who subscribe to Railway Age may have already seen this. At any rate, there will be a conference in March in Chicago on railroad capacity. Here is a partial list of topics:
OPERATIONS
• Extracting maximum efficiency per man-hour worked and compensated
• Applying resources against volume to improve yard capacity
• Running a scheduled railroad
• Improving locomotive and car utilization
• Train-handling tools for engineers
• The role of computer modeling in service design
• Integrating shippers into your service design plan
• Who pays for more capacity, and when?
Lots of food for thought here. I found a couple to be particularly interesting: “Applying resources against volume to improve yard capacity” and “Running a scheduled railroad.” We tend to talk a lot about adding a second main and removing bottlenecks like bridges, but yards are every bit as much a problem when it comes to increasing velocity and capacity.
I am wondering if scheduled service will become a trend–I recall a time when freight trains were probably more reliably on time than today’s Amtrak. Are we going back to the future?
John Timm
Hey John - Thanks for posting this. Definitely an interest of mine - now I’ve got to figure out how to maybe justify going for what is for me essentially an avocation (only) right now.
Yards - that’s a topic that I think has not been explored enough. For the moment, let me add this to the discussion, which I was already looking at for another context (coming later today, I hope) when you posted:
“The real problem with railroads always has been the terminals. Just like airports. Over-the-road speed is useless if everything is just going to park at the other end.” - Mark W. Hemphill, in the last paragraph of his 05-19-2004 2:53 PM post to the thread “RE: GPS Signal Control”, top of Page 2 of 2, at:
http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/t/16044.aspx?PageIndex=2
More details:
“Creating Capacity . . . key to sustained growth”
March 18-19 (Weds. - Thurs.), 2009 - Union League Club, Chicago
In addition to Sessions I and II on Operations (above) on the Weds. the 18th, also scheduled for the same date are other sessions on Engineering (III), and Communications & Signals (IV). On Thurs. the 19th are sessions on Mechanical (V and VI), and [economics ?] - “Who Pays For More Capacity, And When ?” (Session VII) .
Keynote Speaker: Michael J. Ward, CSX’s CEO, etc., & RA’s “2009 Railroader of the Year”
Registration fee: $825 Rooms (sgl./dbl.): $190/ night
Web page: http://www.railwayage.com/conference3.html
Conference flyer (2 pages): http://www.railwayage.com/A/images/Capacity_Ad.pdf
Eight hundred twenty-five bucks for a two-day conference!
That should keep the riff-raff out. [:D] - a.s.