Road Versus Rail

[jimmybeersa]

Gleaned from a news paper clipping in Canada
"There are to many big trucks on the road, causing congestion, road deterioration,many Main Highways have reached their capacity. The solution, rail transport :
While highways may be reaching their limits,capacity still exists on rail corridors which can be augmented to handle future growth.
A average freight train can take 275 big trucks off the roads
The Railway Association estimates that diverting 100 million tonnes of freight per year to the rail system would be the equivalentof 3 million truckloads,saving $500 million a year on road maintenance and construction."
Heres hoping we will see an up surge in railtraffic

 

[roryglasgow]

NAFTA

There is a lot of concern about the safety of the trucks coming up from Mexico that will be using U.S. Interstates and such. Maybe moving some of that traffic to rail would alleviate the concerns and be more cost effective (since individual trucks won't have to be inspected). This makes sense to me in some areas where congestion is getting to be (or has been) a problem...

-Rory

 

[kf4jqd]

Has anyone seen the BNSF commercial on CNN? This issuse is what they address!

There is a family vacationing in an RV. The announcers ask, " Don't you wish the roads where alwways this clear?" I wish!!!

Andy

 

[Woodie]

Damn trucks!

Do what they did in New Zealand. More than 100 miles.... Must go by rail. That got the trucks of the roads!

 

[Matthyro]

Now it is up to the railroads to do a good marketing job. Todays customers don't just come easily. They must be persauded about the benefits of railway use.
In my opinion, both CN and CP are a bit arrogant in their dealings with prosective customers. Its not the railroad workers themselves, its those involved directly with customers. They put up too many barriers that trucking firms do not.
Who would you choose to move your goods??
As a manufacturer I would look at:
Convienience
Speed
Price
Locations

 

[justind]

Get the trucks off the road

I think the big drawback to trains is the locations...even if your business is only 7 blocks from the tracks in the big city, you still have your other businesses scattered about in smaller cities no where near the tracks. So you need a fleet of trucks, and if you have them, you may as well use them to their full potential. However I hate the trucks on the roads, but I hate the way common folks drive around them worse. My brother did long haul trucking, as did my dad and uncle, and it just seems that the stuff they need you to do couldn't really be done relying on rails instead of the truck. It also seems that cars sit waiting forever to be moved (half a day usually) but I am in Utah and about the only thing I ever see move is coal (I don't think the coal cares when it gets to where it is going). I know it isn't that way when you are looking at fast freight, but I think it looks that way on the outside. Plus, you usually don't have enough goods to ship to need a trainload...etc. etc. I think this is why businesses have overlooked it as a shipping method...

 

[rhensley@anderson.cioe.co]

>>>
Plus, you usually don't have enough goods to ship to need a trainload...etc. etc. I think this is why businesses have overlooked it as a shipping method...
<<<

That's why you see containers and trailers on intermodals. Perhaps you don't see them where you are, but I see hot Intermodal after hot Intermodal running through central Indiana on the (now) CSX line. CONRAIL made a good business out of getting trucks off of the highway here in the east. Unfortunately, CSX and NS don't do nearly as well.


Roger

Roger Hensley - rhensley@anderson.cioe.com
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