4-14-08

1,000 containers a day into or out of Humbolt Bay is total day dreaming...Maybe in a month you might see 1,000, but I doublt that...Trucking containers in any direction out of Eureka is a waste of money and time unless they are local deliveries...the distances,the roads..still dreaming....You can load about 175 20 foot containers on a container train or a about 80 40 foot or 53 containers on the same train and they would have to be single and not doublestacked it will take almost three days to get the train to Suiusn/fairfield to the UP and the train could sit for another four or five hours before she moved again...And how about rate making....The rates would have be so low that nobody will be able to pay the bills and the major railroads would add a surcharge to move the traffic which means the shipper would keep the containers on the ship and send them else where.
To move rock, your train loads would be about 4,000 tons max which means the whole line would have to be rebuilt to handle the weight of this traffic.
Thr Lumber business will never be like it was in the past, and maybe some mills might ship by rail...maybe.
There might be about four to six trains in each direction, Maybe and this is dreaming...the rock and garbage could make the southern end of the line pretty busy and as for bringing down property value...The sound of the whistle at grade crossings is something you get use to as these trains won't be traveling at 60 per and shaking the ground causing the dogs to bark and upsetting the neighborhoods.
As for getting trucks off 101, that will never change unless the price of fuel goes sky high and its headed that way....The railroad would have to make delivery promises and faithfully keep them to win the truck traffic away from trucking..Lots of food for thought.....