On Wed, 6 Sep 2006, Paul Brezicki wrote: > Old back issues of Trains mag are full of interesting tidbits. While checking on the boxcar stats in the 8/69 issue I came across the following quote: "Even with considerable circuity, ships with a God-given right of way can always provide lower-cost transportation than land carriers. Further, I believe many overlook the high port costs, handling, drayage and ship costs during loading and unloading which further make the landbridge concept uneconomic when compared with the containership using the Panama Canal route." Who do you think said this: a steamship co. executive? Trucking co executive? Port Authority official? Actually it was P.D. Ohl, Penn Central's Director of Market Planning speaking at a landbridge panel in 1969. As far as the RR was concerned, his vision appeared to be as short as his surname. Three years later, when the now-bankrupt carrier began the nation's first landbridge container service in conjunction with Santa Fe, he was no longer in the marketing dept. This operation was for SeaTrain Lines, which also routed some of it's traffic via EL (req'd content). > > There were numerous reasons for PC's collapse, with most of the important ones being external. However it sure didn't help to have high-level officials out there scaring away potential business. > That land bridge service was first tried by NYC with a 54 hour container train from NYC to LA, a 59 MPH average from coast to coast. SP whined that they wanted a fast train with the NYC too, but it was obvious that it just wasn't possible with the SP's route so Perlman killed the SF train to stay on good terms with the SP. Henry J. Henry Priebe Jr. Blue Moon Internet Corp Network Administrator www.bluemoon.net Internet Access & Web Hosting www.railfan.net Railfan Network Services The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List Sponsored by the ELH&TS http://www.elhts.org ------------------------------
This HTML page is © 2000-2008 Blue Moon Online System and The Railfan Network
This page and the data contained therein may not be reproduced
for any form of commercial use without the explicit permission
of J. Henry Priebe Jr. or his duly authorized agent.