Quick way to get HSR running from Union Station to Long Beach …
It depends on where you live.
“Shade Tree Mechanic” stuff has been fairly common in the past. Owner-Operator truckers just drove their highway tractors home and worked on them under a shade tree. It’s getting a little hard to do that now with all these computer chip thingies.
You might have to park the truck one or two miles from you home and walk the distance. It’ll be good for your heart. Do you have a serious comment on this?
You will have to pay for the fuel you use.
We’re being serious?
Lake Havasu was really thriving before the pandemic. I say: flood the A.C., install a couple boat ramps, build a casino or two, and use any money left over for a nice wetlands restoration project.
Typical reaction to new ideas on here, as in most places. Homeostasis is dominant, unfortunately.
So you want a bunch of “yes men”? Ain’t gonna happen.
How many movements to the IE would your 15-25 container “trains” add?
No, I’m not looking for “Yes Men.” But I’d like for people to see opportunities as well as problems. Too many folks just see the problems.
I don’t know the volume. The OP indicated it was substantial.
What is excess and how does it create shortage?
I never said it was a railroad problem as I’m not putting the onus on the BNSF, UP, or the Pacific Harbor Line. The whole point is how do we utilize an underperforming assest such as the AC to it’s potential. A shuttle service using the Pacific Harbor Line from dock to the IE would be the immediate solution to getting Trucks off the 710, etc… Putting that traffic onto the AC can help to recover it’s cost going forward. There’s currently around 40,000 trucks/day utilizing the 710 from and to the ports. Let’s say 20% or 8,000 trucks are TEU moves. That’s pretty substantial… Getting that traffic off the 710 will reduce traffic along with better local air quality. So there’s environmental benefit as well.
[quote user=“PNWRMNM”]
Rail service to the IE is non competitive because the haul is too sort to recover the terminal costs and the ACTA’s fee which is about $60 p
No need to preface Convicted One. You understand the pricinple of civil discourse. It maybe a bad line of thinking. When I said other sectors I meant to say outside of transportation.
The AC has benefited local surface traffic. However the prime reason the AC is underutilized is due to changes in the logistics chain. This was otuside the realm of the AC.
I thought the A.C. was a great idea when it was built. Mostly because I am a cement and rebar junkie…
But, I really really have grown averse to pitchmen thinking the only thing standing between them and the promised land is $10,000 spent for architectural renderings to use as bait in wooing a public commitment to their dreams.
Put another way, if New Market tax incentives had existed back in PT Barnum’s day, I seriously doubt he would have ever entered the circus business.
Here’s what I believe:
The argument that the A.C. improved the quality of life in the neighborhoods it traverses, is hyperbole. I’ve driven those neighborhoods myself, and the most noteworthy improvement is that now there is a gulch subdividing the blight and sprawl.
The container traffic on the old Harbor line never bothered me. So the claimed urgency to build the A.C. in order to get the traffic off of it looked like a solution in search of a problem, from day one. I used to actually think it was cool seeing live freight crossing up over Hawthorne Blvd there at 190th street.
Once the Canadian lines pick east coast merger partners, most of the business still going to LA will shift north of the border anyway, so why set ourselves up for a second round of disappointment? Ashes to ashes,…etc.
SD60,
I think you are trying to say that a service case exists. I am embarrased to say that I spent half of last nignt thinking about this move. I think you are right that about 8,000 containers per day move from Port to IE. I planned on 1800 per day.
My best guess is that truck cost is about $500 based on a 7 hour round trip at $75 per hour. I could be off a bit, but the fact is easy to find if anyone cares.
Here is my estimate of rail costs using 6 sets of 100 box trains.
Crew of 2 BNSF or UP men @ $250 for 8 hours $ 500 trip.
Fuel 2 units of 2000 HP, 600 gallons at $3 $1800 trip
Engine wet lease 2x$1000/3 trips/day $ 700 trip
Car hire $6/slot/day 3 trips/day $ 200 trip
Trackage rights at $.50 per loaded mi on 90 mi. $4500 trip
Overhead at profit on Op cost at 100% $3200
Total $10,900, say $11,000 per trip is $110 per box line haul
Now the hard part - Terminal costs assumed to be $75 per lift at 4 per round trip, is $300 per box
IE dray not over 15 miles 3 hours at $70, say $200.
Total per box is $110 + 300 + 200 = $610 before the hard parts
What equipment? Existing 40’ double stack or very light single axle spine cars in blocks of 9? Probably cost a couple of million to create and test new car design which would deliberately not be interchangeable.
Terminals. Do they exist now, if so will the owners let them displace long h
Thankfully that won’t happen, certainly not with the current STB.
Would this make more sense if the inland ports were Barstow (BNSF) and Las Vegas (UP)? Presumably BNSF could add a ramp at Barstow relatively cheaply (RELATIVELY) compared to breaking new ground. Granted, the run back to Riverside and San Bernardino has it’s own set of issues.
Acronym check- IE? Inland ….something?
Empire
We must remain ever-vigilant in our forward thinking?
The market is the strip and restuff facilities in the IE, so Vegas and Barstow are irrelevant.
Mac
Inland Empire - San Bernadino/Riverside Counties.
And a lot of the dist facilities in the IE are being replaced by facilities in Phoenix and Kingman-now that Cali wants to use “emission-free” trucks.
“Inland Empire”–what a misnomer. That’s like calling the south side of Chicago “South Beach”.