Re: (erielack) Perishables in EL years

[Jedalberg_@_aol.com]

While this isn't exactly EL, I guess you could say it is the grandson of EL  
or somesuch. Anyway, there are still about 2500 reefers a year going into 
Hunts  Point (no apostrophe). We did a study there a few years ago, and it was 
2200;  Iunderstand the reefer business has grown, so 2500 may be low. Of course 
it all  comes down the east side of the Hudson.For a long time service was 
terrible-12  to 28 days and anything in between. So the traffic was 
potatos,carrots and  onions, relatively non perishable. Can you imagine a carload of lettuce 
after 4  weeks? The market smelled bad enough after just a d or so and they 
make a major  effort to keep it cleaned up..
The other piece of rail associated traffic is the intermodal perishibles .  A 
few years ago this amounted to about 10k or so loads a year--out of about  
120,000 inbound truckloads. This was all drayed over from the NJ terminals. For  
those who are going to ask, why not rail it into New York, say, Harlem River? 
 Which hasn't seen a piggyback load in the twenty years or so when the State  
started spending 135mm or so (it does handle outbound MSW, or garbage, so the 
 state is getting something back-fewer trucks on the highway at least-which 
has  always been one of the hidden agendas). The basic answer is that there are 
 essentially zero, zip, nada, backhaul loads coming out of NYC and 
environs(you  can't backhaul garbage in food-grade trucks-a few gypsy truckers tried 
this a  few years ago). There are loads out of North Jersey. Maybe 35-50% 
depending on  the season. So the empties go back to NJ for the load and are loaded up 
back to  the west.
Jim


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