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Re: Impressive move of the goalposts, BOB2? Bad BOB2? Answering assertions with a question of fact?
Author: FUD
Date: 12-28-2021 - 14:51
I'm going to accept, provisionally, that intermodal works in the East on shorter lanes than in the West. When added together, they may carry a fair amount of traffic even if any single lane is paltry compared to what UP and BNSF move. Trucking in the East isn't a holiday drive either, so trip distances are almost certainly shorter than in the West. Still, with a day's drive for a long-distance trucker being at least 300 miles, there are still some boundaries around what's practical as a rail haul of containers or trailers when the delay inherent in the loading/unloading processes are considered. That boundary is somewhere near a long-distance trucker's typical day's drive plus a bit.
And yes, we're talking intermodal where the direct competition is trucking. Loose-car railroading and unit bulk trains will never completely go away, but they're not competing with trucks; perhaps barges or pipelines, in some lanes.
As for the implication that 'PSR is mostly for the big western railroads' - CSX is madly in love with it (as the angst over their dumping shippers wholesale in the early stages of implementing it showed), and NS like BNSF mostly does it (to keep investors happy) but calls it something else. CSX was Hunter Harrison's last stand, and he trained his proteges well. And with KCS joining CP, PSR (modified during recent times by CP, but still used) will become the rule of the day there too.
I also find it amusing, when looking at tracking info for some of the stuff sent to me (almost all by ground service rather than air) for the holidays and otherwise this year, to see the sharp boundary between truck and train at Chicago. It was clear that things from the East usually were trucked to the Chicago area (the check-in times and places made that clear), then were often put on a train to California or the PacNW (the check-in times and places made THAT clear, too) before further (not just delivery) trucking. If you're interested in logistics, it can be interesting (and occasionally head-scratching) to look at the tracking info and try to figure out why something was routed the way it was. And of course why (especially for a company with a name starting the F) things often sit for many days in the distribution center serving my area before finding space on a delivery truck.
And yes, we're talking intermodal where the direct competition is trucking. Loose-car railroading and unit bulk trains will never completely go away, but they're not competing with trucks; perhaps barges or pipelines, in some lanes.
As for the implication that 'PSR is mostly for the big western railroads' - CSX is madly in love with it (as the angst over their dumping shippers wholesale in the early stages of implementing it showed), and NS like BNSF mostly does it (to keep investors happy) but calls it something else. CSX was Hunter Harrison's last stand, and he trained his proteges well. And with KCS joining CP, PSR (modified during recent times by CP, but still used) will become the rule of the day there too.
I also find it amusing, when looking at tracking info for some of the stuff sent to me (almost all by ground service rather than air) for the holidays and otherwise this year, to see the sharp boundary between truck and train at Chicago. It was clear that things from the East usually were trucked to the Chicago area (the check-in times and places made that clear), then were often put on a train to California or the PacNW (the check-in times and places made THAT clear, too) before further (not just delivery) trucking. If you're interested in logistics, it can be interesting (and occasionally head-scratching) to look at the tracking info and try to figure out why something was routed the way it was. And of course why (especially for a company with a name starting the F) things often sit for many days in the distribution center serving my area before finding space on a delivery truck.
