How come I never see any trailers or containers going to Green Bay anymore? WC used to have 4 trains for this service.
Not really a topic but really a question of why Canadien National has discontinued its intermodal trains to Green Bay. I have also noticed that Oakland yard in Green Bay, WC’s intermodal yard now sits empty, along with the facilities in Neenah. Why is this?
Kraig
Canadian National considered it un-profitable. They didn’t see the point in it I guess. I know they were making some money off of it.
The Oakland Yard now is used for occasional coal car storage. I have also seen blocks of hoppers and tankers sitting there from time to time.
Maybe someday, we will see service restored to the line when trucks overload the road, CN will realize maybe they should have kept the service going. Of course they only want the line from Superior to Chicago and could care less about anything else.
The CNW used to bring intermodal down from Green Bay through Milwaukee to Chicago, presumably Global or Proviso. They’d pick up some in Milwaukee at St Francis. That service stopped in the 1980s as I recall. I never heard an explanation but presumably the distance was short and the on-line switching made it use up crew time so the usual intermodal efficiency wasn’t there. I don’t think CN picked up any cars once it left Green Bay however. Given what a nightmare Chicago is becoming I am surprised there isn’t some market for intermodal from Green Bay. On the other hand Green Bay does not seem to be quite the traffic source it was in the 1970s to 1990s, if the declining rail picture is any indication.
Dave Nelson
CN did indeed pick up cars after leaving Green Bay. There was an Intermodel ramp in Neenah with anywhere from 5-30 cars. I remember watching T218 swtich the ramp at night picking up many cars. I remember on a few occasions, the train was almost over 100 cars! I know there is business in Green Bay left. Schnider National’s home and CN says there isnt any trucks!?!
I have no documentation of this. I was told by more than one employee that work in the area everything that CN remarked about it. CN was the one that said there was no money in it.
As for the line being used between Superior and Chicago, they treat that line like gold along with the customers on it. You dont see that happening anywhere else. Rumor has it, there are many shortlines looking to expand in Wisconsin so they can offer better service to customers. One line being the Tomahawk and Western north of Wausau. From what I understand, CN runs 5-6 days a week. They said as of Oct. 1st, they are cutting service down to 3 days a week and customers are worried they wont get thier product. CN wouldn’t cut service on the SupChi line now would they?
You never know with CN. They cut service along the Toronto/Chicago line as well as the Toronto/ Buffalo lines. I don’t know what the hell CN did with the Bala Subdivision which runs between Toronto Mac Millan Yard to Manitoba but there aren’t as many trains on that line as there used to be.
Working at a fire station located right next to the line (watch out for ballast cutting the lawn.). It seems that since the CN takeover there are still quite a few trains running to Green Bay albeit not intermodal. A good one to count on is the Stevens Point train with its engines on both ends due to no connection in Neenah. It is a great surprise to me that intermodal was not profitable. WC had been running this for years even with having to run on trackage rights with the GBW.
Kraig
[quote]
QUOTE: Originally posted by M.W. Hemphill
Thanks, wcfan. Unfortunately, then, the information on the intermodal business isn’t reportable by any reasonable standard. It would require a name and a verification of that person’s qualifications to know that information – anyone with access to and high-level information about the P&L statements for the last few years, for instance. A casual glance on a desktop won’t do, because I wouldn’t be able to ask them about what went into that P&L. Better yet would be the document itself and someone who would swear to its authenticity, and knowledge of its components. Otherwise, there’s absolutely no way to separate the story from gossip, malicious intent, or criminal intent.
As for the interest only in the Chicago-Superior line, it’s imposslble to know intent. However, you can measure if actions are consistent with intent. In this case, a well documented, before-and-after service levels report for all of the WC service units or lines would show if service has changed. That still doesn’t prove that the corporation’s interest has declined, however. It could actually prove they were more interested, because they were trying to reduce their costs to bring the service out of the red. What’ you would then do is compare the document to the railroad’s public statements and see if it was consistent. If that led nowhere, then you’d compare it to the historical record of similar changes to see if it falls into any established pattern that would enable you to predict future actions. You still haven’t proved intent, of course – you’ve only predicted a likely future behavior.
You see the problem here: knowing anything that you can sign your name to as a journalist, reporter, or observer of the railroad scene, other than what the railroad publically states and swears to, takes quite a lot of work, and often comes up empty anyway. That’s why most of what you see in the business press works primarily with company stateme