There's an interesting sidebar in this month's Trains article about KCS that describes operations at what may be the newest intermodal terminal in the US: Marion Industrial Center, the former GSA facility that was the location of EL's Marion piggyback ramp in the 70's, used mostly for UPS traffic. IIRC one of our list members (Bob Bahrs?) attended the opening in June. While hardly typical (it's used exclusively by Schneider National), operations do give some insight into today's intermodal picture. The trains operate over CSX (ex-Big Four) and KCS (ex-GM&O) via E St Louis to Kansas City where the boxes are interchanged with BNSF and UP. Most are headed to or coming from the west coast, illustrating the evolution of intermodal into a mostly transcontinental mode. While designed to serve Columbus primarily, traffic has been coming in from all of Ohio and western PA. The author (Fred Frailey) asks "What's not to like?" Plenty, I say. The trains are scheduled over the 750 miles in 35 hours, for an average over-the-road speed of 21mph. The second morning arrival is almost a day slower than all-highway; a truck leaving Marion at the westbound's 6pm departure time can be in KC tomorrow morning. Also, the early cutoff time (I imagine it's an 8 to 5 operation) and long dray means shippers must load well before the close of the business day, and for some of the more distant customers (eg Pittsburgh) it means an additional day in transit waiting for the following day's train. Moreover the boxes are grounded in KC and drayed to connections, introducing further delay. I imagine the trains spend some time manouvering through St Louis, and KCS is the circuitous route from there to KC (about 10% longer vs UP). CSX isn't exactly famous for expedited handling either. Presumably KCS was chosen because it's a neutral connection giving Schneider access to both UP and BNSF. The service uses four 100-platform trainsets, which gives the equipment a 321 loaded car mile per day utilization rate. Increasing average speed to 40 mph would permit the same capacity with only half the equipment, and still allow over 5 hours to turn the trains at each end (I know, I'm starting to sound like John Kneiling). For comparison, the Central's SV-6 of 1966 made the E St Louis-Cleveland run at an average speed of 45mph, including the Indianapolis pickup (the Schneider trains do no switching enroute). Even bankrupt EL was consistently able to move UPS trailers on CX-99 from Croxton to Marion a similar distance (about 725 miles) in 22 hours at an average speed of 33mph, including the Port Jervis pickup. So here we have a brand new 21st century intermodal train operating at a 19th century average speed and with a "transload" at one end almost recalling the gauge barriers of that age. The fact that these trains were an almost instant success makes you wonder how much additional time-sensitive freight they could divert if their operation were upgraded even modestly. Paul B The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List Sponsored by the ELH&TS http://www.elhts.org ------------------------------ End of EL Mail List Digest V3 #2128 ***********************************
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