Not that this is the right thread for this, but I hate hypocritical politicians that are vehemently opposed to something to use it as a political ploy. Like Kasich has a better, more productive plan/idea of what multi-modal in Ohio would look like.  Slimey. :shoot:

Loaded for business

Posted on: Sun, 19 Sep 2010 07:40:47 EDT

Sep 19, 2010 (The Lima News - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --

 

NORTH BALTIMORE -- Most of us aren't yet thinking about what will go under the tree this year, but shippers are.

 

Shippers are unloading holiday consumer goods at the nation's ports now. This harvest season, soybean and corn farmers need to export their crops. And, no matter the season, Procter & Gamble has Tide to get to market.

 

About an hour up the road from Lima, a 500-acre terminal for high-speed freight rail trains is at the center of the new global economy. CSX's North Baltimore intermodal terminal, slated to open in early 2011, is a linchpin in the next generation of freight rail that's sending double the load in a fraction of the old travel time.

 

Full story at: http://www.tradingmarkets.com/news/stock-alert/pg_loaded-for-business-1177436.html

Ohio's ability to bring rail service to the table brings much needed jobs to inner-city Columbus....

 

Former Techneglas plant wins out for International Technical Coatings

Business First of Columbus - by Adrian Burns

Media

 

State and private funding for a railroad link has helped convince an Arizona company to open a factory at the former Techneglas Inc. site on Columbus’ industrial south side.

 

The Ohio Rail Development Commission has approved a $125,000 grant that when added to $476,000 from Norfolk Southern Corp. will cover much of the cost to rebuild and extend a rail spur into the site. The former brownfield site, where glass components for TVs were produced until 2004, is being redeveloped into the 45-acre TechSouth business park.

 

Bolstering the rail link was instrumental in Phoenix-based International Technical Coatings Inc.’s decision to spend more than $14.9 million to set up a plant for its metal wire products, according to officials working on the project. The spur’s importance demonstrates the critical role that transportation infrastructure can play in bringing jobs to Central Ohio, said Kristina Clouse, assistant director of the strategic business investment division at the state Department of Development.

 

Full story at:

http://columbus.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2010/09/20/story2.html?b=1284955200%5E3960461&t=printable

AAR: Strong intermodal gains continue   

Thursday, September 23, 2010 

 

 

U.S. intermodal freight traffic for the week ending September 18 marked a record for the year, and rose 16.9% whenmeasured against the comparable week in 2009, the Association of American Railroads said Thursday. Intermodal also gained 2.4% over the comparable week in 2008.

 

Within the intermodal sector, U.S. container volume gained 18.8% for the week over 2009, and was up 11.4% for the week compared with the 2008 period.

 

Full story at: http://www.railwayage.com/breaking-news/strong-intermodal-gains-continue-aar-reports.html

Will intermodal lead the recovery?  

If the past few months are any indication, the answer is yes. Just ask BNSF.

Monday, September 27, 2010 

By William C. Vantuono, Editor

 

 

BNSF Railway posted a double-digit return on net investment for the 12 months ending June 30, 2010—right through the worst of the Great Recession. Its 10.25% ROI, virtually identical to the 10.20% of the prior-year period, clearly illustrates the railroad industry’s overall strength in weathering the nation’s worst economic storm in more than 75 years. For BNSF, it shows a railroad that rose to new heights of productivity and service quality, while maintaining a relatively high level of capital investment. So far, Warren Buffett’s faith in BNSF and its management has paid the railroad’s sole investor a handsome dividend.

 

Full story at: http://www.railwayage.com/in-this-issue/will-intermodal-lead-the-recovery-september-2010.html

Yep, I know this demonstrates I have no life, but this is what I do with my weekends:

 

Did you know that.....

 

> more sand/gravel is produced in Portage County than any in other county in Northern Ohio? (about 5 million gross tons per year, SOURCE: the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Geological Survey - http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/Portals/10/pdf/GeoFacts/geof19.pdf).

 

> nearly all of that sand/gravel comes from a 10-mile-long corridor along the Cuyahoga River, from the Mantua area south toward Ravenna Township (thanks to glacial sand/gravel deposits, SOURCE: ODNR, DGS).

 

> sand is combined with water for hydraulic fracturing of shale in the Marcellus Basin, a natural gas field located below eastern Ohio and Kentucky, the southern tier of New York, and most of Pennsylvania and West Virginia (SOURCE: multiple sources including Chesapeake Energy fact sheet - http://www.chk.com/Media/MarcellusMediaKits/Marcellus_Hydraulic_Fracturing_Fact_Sheet.pdf);

 

> the Marcellus Basin is estimated to be the second-largest natural gas field in the world and was not commercially tapped until 2007 (SOURCE: Penn State University, Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering - http://www.alleghenyconference.org/PDFs/PELMisc/PSUStudyMarcellusShale072409.pdf

 

> given the significant volumes of natural gas, the sand needed to tap it, the sand available in a short corridor in Portage County, and the ability of railroad freight service to carry bulk materials efficiently, why not upgrade, reactivate and build rail infrastructure necessary to tap this resource?

 

So here goes.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This section details a potential routing necessary to tap as many sand/gravel quarries, and future sites of quarries, as possible in the "sand corridor" from Mantua south to Ravenna Township....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'll post the remaining section from Mantual east to Youngstown in a little bit. Told ya I got nothing better to do with my weekends!

Here's the rest of the route, from Mantua to Youngstown...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not sure yet what to do with all of this. But I'm open to suggestions!!

So we have plenty of water, lots of renewable and clean(er) non-renewable energy, plenty of prime farmland and fresh food, infrastructure, big cities with lots of amenities, and small towns with charm.  We need to be market ourselves as the sustainable region!

If a personal story bores you, scroll past this.

 

To show you how our lives can change significantly by virtue of our surroundings... In 1977, my family decided to move from ultra-suburban Highland Heights (Cleveland area) to the quiet countryside. We built a house in then-rural Bainbridge Township in a brand-new housing subdivision about a half-mile from Geauga Lake. Trains were something I liked more when I was a toddler and had only a minor interest at the start of my pre-teen years. Instead I was big into airplanes, car racing and dirt-biking.

 

Our new house was perched atop the valley of the Aurora Branch of the Chagrin River (see big red X on the map below). On the other side of the valley was the former Erie-Lackwanna First Subdivision of the railroad's Mahoning Division. It split off from the E-L's Chicago-Hoboken mainline at SN Junction (Leavittsburg, just west of Warren). But the First Subdivision was known mostly for two things -- ore trains and passenger trains (though it did have a couple of daily general freight trains). A dozen or so daily ore trains went to/from Cleveland's docks to steel mills in Warren, Youngstown, Aliquippa and Pittsburgh. Most of the eight daily passenger trains went from Cleveland to Pittsburgh, the last one being a Cleveland-Youngstown commuter train ending in 1977 -- the year we started looking to move to Bainbridge. But I never saw the commuter train.

 

What I did see, and heard more often, were the ore trains and general freights. In our first year in Bainbridge -- just a year after Conrail took over the rail line from E-L -- they went by our house every other hour, except Sundays when I seldom heard a train. I could not see them from my bedroom window overlooking the valley but I sure could hear them. I often saw trains at crossings or when walking to Geauga Lake or Sea World. From my bedroom window, I could first hear eastbounds bound for the mills and factories and shippers of America's industrial heartland blowing their horns at Pettibone Road. Then they sounded for Geauga Lake Road. Then Brewster Road. Treat Road. And maybe if the wind was right, I could hear eastbounds toot for State Route 306. For some reason I remember more eastbounds than westbounds, perhaps because I was at school when most westbounds were scheduled to pass my house. I dunno. Memories are odd like that sometimes.

 

Perhaps I remember eastbounds best because of my few recordings captured them for me to replay in a chance discovery in later years. I tape-recorded the haunting sounds of the train horns from a distance, their mellow sounds echoing across the river valley. I loved that sound, especially at night when there were no other sounds and the imagination of distant cities and eras filled in the voids. Over the years, I learned how fast some trains were going by marking on maps the distance between crossings and timing the horns. The final toot of the long-long-short-long horn blasts was supposed to be blown as the locomotive went through a crossing. Speeds of between 40 and 50 mph were common in 1978.

 

By 1979, the trains got slower. As the mills in Youngstown, Alliquippa and Pittsburgh scaled back and ultimately shut down outright, or as Conrail rerouted traffic to a parallel line it had through Hudson and Ravenna, the trains became rarer, too. By 1980, all the iron ore trains were gone as US Steel shut its Ohio Works and Republic shut its Haselton Works, both in Youngstown. All that was left was just one daily general freight train in each direction to Brier Hill Yard in Youngstown, and an every-other-day local freight from North Randall Yard serving small online shippers.

 

By then, I was hooked. I was hooked on trains thanks to the old Erie-Lackawanna between Cleveland and Youngstown which had the region's last commuter train speeding between its endpoint cities at 70 mph. But in 1980, Conrail ended through freight service, turned off the automatic block signaling system, and called quits to 125 years of railroading between Cleveland and Youngstown. Conrail in 1982 ripped up 22 miles of tracks between Leavittsburg and Mantua, plus other sections in Warren and Niles where dozens of daily trains traveled only six years earlier. All that was left was the three-days-a-week local that kept running from Cleveland out to the Carlon Cement Plant on Chamberlain Road in Mantua Township.

 

And then it stopped in 1993. Ironically, that was the same year I moved from my home in Bainbridge to the west side of Cleveland. East of Harper Road in Solon, the railroad has been rusting away unused and going back to nature ever since.

 

But my experiences in those 15 years of watching and hearing a great railroad feed a great industrial way of life only to fade away before my very senses makes me wonder if it really had to fade away. It was a big reason why I became an advocate of railroads and a promoter of Northeast Ohio industry. Had we not moved to that house in that location, who knows what I'd be doing today.

 

For me, X really did mark the spot...

 

UP: “Wherever you find business, you’ll find us”   

Tuesday, October 12, 2010 

 

On Oct. 13, Union Pacific will launch a national advertising campaign—its first in nearly a decade—that illustrates the railroad’s “door-to-door shipping logistics expertise.” Described as “the most comprehensive ad campaign in UP’s 148-year history to specifically target new business growth,” it encompasses television, print, and online ads supported by the tagline, “Wherever you find business, you’ll find us.”

 

Full story at:

http://www.railwayage.com/breaking-news/up-wherever-you-find-business-you-ll-find-us.html

I saw one of their commercials on CNBC this morning.

Railcar Owners Speed Returns to Active Fleet

John D. Boyd | Oct 13, 2010 7:11PM GMT

The Journal of Commerce Online - News Story

 

North American railroads, lessors, shippers reduce idled cars by 17,638

September was the strongest month since springtime for North American railcar owners shrinking their lists of idle equipment as gains in both carload and intermodal traffic prompted operators to activate more equipment left idle from the recession.

 

Car owners among the fleet leasing firms, railroads and shippers took 17,638 cars out of storage last month, said the Association of American Railroads, the fastest drawdown of the parked fleet since April and the fourth-largest total this year.

 

Full story at: http://www.joc.com/rail-intermodal/railcar-owners-speed-returns-active-fleet

As baby boomers retire, railroads seek new workers

 

Two years ago, as rail shipments fell, BNSF Railway was rescinding job offers, announcing layoffs and sending workers home. Now, with business on the rebound and a generation of employees rolling toward the end of the line, the region’s biggest railroad operator is looking for a little extra help.

 

Full story at: http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/296517/

Read this with the impact on surface transportation...highways and rail....in mind....

 

NAFTA Trade Grew Sharply in August

Thomas L. Gallagher | Nov 3, 2010 8:41PM GMT

The Journal of Commerce Online - News Story

 

 

Trade using surface transportation between the United States and its North American Free Trade Agreement partners Canada and Mexico was 25.3 percent higher in August 2010 than in August 2009, reaching $68 billion, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics of the U.S. Department of Transportation.

 

The annual increase was greater than the 18.8 percent improvement in July, and the amount of trade was $6.7 billion higher in August than in July.

 

The value of surface transportation trade in August 2010, however, remained 5.9 percent below the August 2008 level of $72.3 billion prior to the recession. The value of NAFTA surface trade fell in every month but December of 2009. It has grown in every month since then.

 

Read more at: http://www.joc.com/logistics-economy/nafta-trade-grew-sharply-august

 

And here's why the above is important....

 

AAR: Traffic still outpacing 2009 levels   

Thursday, November 04, 2010 

 

U.S. carload freight traffic stayed above 2009 levels for the week ending Oct. 30, 2010, up 6.3% compared with a year ago, the Association of American Railroads reported Thursday. U.S. intermodal traffic for the week was up 14.2% compared with the same week a year ago, with container volume up 15.7% and trailer volume up 6.5%.

 

AAR said 13 of the 19 carload commodity groups increased from the comparable week in 2009, with gains paced by metallic ores, up 128.2%, and crushed stone, sand and gravel, up 27.5%. Commodity groups posting declines included primary forest products, down 13.4%, non-metallic minerals, down 9.3%, and grain mill products, down 7%.

 

Rad more at: http://www.railwayage.com/breaking-news/aar-traffic-still-outpacing-2009-levels.html

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20101113/NEWS16/11120396

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Article published November 13, 2010

 

Wood County intermodal site offers sneak peek of future

$175 million North Baltimore center covers 45 acres

 

By DAVID PATCH

BLADE STAFF WRITER

 

NORTH BALTIMORE, Ohio - Outside the simulator booth where Jamie Watkins sharpened her skills operating a mammoth freight-container crane Friday, the CSX intermodal terminal just west of town was still very much a thing of the future.

 

While two of its five huge gantry cranes, more than 100 feet tall and 300 feet across, performed test maneuvers during a media tour of the $175 million facility, most of the roughly 45 acres of concrete pavement on the Northwest Ohio Trans-Shipment Terminal site was empty.

 

Inside the terminal's training simulator, Miss Watkins prepared for the day when she will control cranes moving hundreds if not thousands of tons of freight each hour around the site.

 

Full story at above link:

 

And good video in this story link... http://abclocal.go.com/wtvg/story?section=news/local&id=7786060

Posted on Sun, Nov. 14, 2010

Increase in rail, truck shipments points to economic recovery

By RANDOLPH HEASTER

The Kansas City Star

 

After about 17 months on furlough, Heather Herbst this year returned to her full-time job working on the railroad.

 

“Business is up, and I’m glad to be back,” said Herbst, an Olathe resident and conductor for BNSF Railway, the biggest rail operator in Kansas City.

 

“The economy’s helping a lot. We’ve got some new hires joining us in December, and I read that BNSF had a $700 million profit for the quarter. That’s always good.”

 

Full story at: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/11/14/2430823/increase-in-rail-truck-shipments.html

Looking for a job?  Know of someone who is?

 

All of the major railroads have called back all of their furlough employees, but are facing a huge wave of retirements as their business is booming.

 

Bottom line:  the railroads are training and hiring new employees.

 

Class Is cultivate existing partnerships - and forge new ones - with training centers, colleges and universities

by Julie Sneider

 

Following an era of employment streamlining that lasted from the mid-1990s through the early 2000s, freight railroads now are contending with the industry's biggest hiring demand in decades as workers reach retirement age in big numbers. How big? Try tens of thousands big.

 

To fill the vacancies, Class I recruiters continue to rely in part on such time-tested methods as promoting from within, encouraging employee word-of-mouth referrals, increasing campus recruitment tours, attending job fairs and appealing to U.S. military veterans, whose skill sets and experience are a good match for the railroad work culture.

 

But replacing boomer-age retirees is not merely a matter of filling vacancies. It's also about replacing career railroaders' skills, abilities and experience — and, along the way, projecting the skills and abilities that'll be needed in the years ahead.

 

Full story at: http://www.progressiverailroading.com/pr/article.asp?id=24998&[email protected]

Class I rail earnings up 32.6% in 12 months

Wednesday, November 17, 2010 

 

U.S. Class I railroads earned net income totaling $8.78 billion in the 12 months ended Sept. 30, an increase of 32.6% over the prior-year period.

 

A comprehensive financial report posted on the Surface Transportation Board website also shows that during that period, Class I railway operating revenue increased 11.4% to $55.6 billion and revenue ton-miles were up 5.8% to 1.63 trillion.

 

READ MORE AT:

http://www.railwayage.com/breaking-news/class-i-rail-earnings-up-32.6-in-12-months.html

Interesting little factoid highlighted in this story....

 

Toy retailers' brisk business means more containerized imports at U.S. ports, PIERS says

 

U.S. toy retailers are anticipating a strong holiday shopping season — good news for the volume of containerized imports at the nation’s ports, according to global import and export information service PIERS.

 

Through 2010’s first nine months, U.S. containerized toy imports increased 20 percent year over year to 398,137 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs). 

 

Ninety-one percent of toys imported to the United States originate from China, up 19.3 percent. Vietnam and Taiwan import 1.1 percent of all toys, while Taiwan's growth volume has been flat, according to PIERS.

 

Full story at: http://www.progressiverailroading.com/news/article/Toy-retailers-brisk-business-means-more-containerized-imports-at-US-ports-PIERS-says--25126

I am a freight railroad professional and I can attest, annecdotally, that the activity on the freight railroads has skyrocketed in the last year to 18 months.

 

Symboled trains which, last fall, were running with 20 to 30 cars are now running with 80 to 100 cars.  The economy is back in certain sectors.  We need to get used to the fact that a housing boom may not be on the horizon.  Too many people were negatively touched by the housing bust for it to come charging back.  Besides, the last thing we need is more urban sprawl!

 

A new metric of the economy may be to watch the relative length of freight trains.  As someone who sees them EVERY day I can attest to the fact that they are an excellent barometer of economic activity.

AAR: November the 11th straight month with year-over-year traffic gains

 

In November, U.S. carloadings rose 4.5 percent and intermodal traffic jumped 11.3 percent compared with November 2009 levels, according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR).

 

On an unadjusted basis, carloads climbed in 14 of 19 commodity groups, including metallic ores, up 86 percent; primary metal products, up 26 percent; coke, up 19.9 percent; and crushed stone, gravel and sand, up 18.7 percent.

 

Full story at: http://www.progressiverailroading.com/news/article/AAR-November-the-11th-straight-month-with-yearoveryear-traffic-gains--25202

Brief moment for terminology question:

 

What's a "symboled train," and what are its neighbors in whatever category it occupies?  (Unsymboled?  Unlabeled?  Enruned?)

The term "symboled train" is a bit of a misnomer because today, every train is a symboled train. Even those that aren't "symboled trains" still carry a symbol of some kind -- yard jobs, light engine moves or work trains. Most contemporary railroaders today don't use the term "symboled trains" anymore. But it used to represent a regularly scheduled general merchandise train comprised of boxcars, tank cars, gondolas, hoppers, etc. Here is an example of how train symbols are derived for trains run by BNSF:

 

http://home.earthlink.net/~djcooley/BNSF/info/trainsym.html

 

Other railroads have different systems for identifying trains.

My use of the term "Symboled train" was really a reference to "Road Trains" vs. "Local Trains."  A road train is any train that is regularly scheduled (though not always daily) between two or more points on a given railroad but does not stop along the way to switch cars out at individual customer sidings.  That work would befall the "Locals."

 

You are correct, though Ken: EVERY train does have a symbol, strictly speaking.  Local and yard crews often refer to them as the name of their starting point or turn-back point in informal situations, though.

 

Sorry for the confusion.

Thought this was relelvant. I took this not long ago along the CSX Kanawha Sub. in Ashland, Ky. at the AK Steel Coke Plant. The old C&O CPL's are being removed in favor of the new CSX tunnel visors, which are high enough to allow for double stacks.

 

Signs of an economy on the rebound...

 

AAR: Christmas week freight traffic surges    

Thursday, December 30, 2010 

 

U.S. freight carload traffic for the holiday week ending Dec. 25 rose sharply, up 29.3%, compared with the same week in 2009, the Association of American Railroads reported Thursday. U.S. intermodal traffic also was robust, up 25.1% compared to the same week in 2009. AAR noted, “Both the current week and the comparison week from 2009 included the holiday; however, Christmas 2010 fell on a Saturday while Christmas 2009 fell on a Friday.”

 

AAR said 17 of the 19 carload commodity groups increased from the comparable week in 2009, with all posting double-digit gains in loadings. Leading the gainers were metallic ores, up 65%, and crushed stone, sand, and gravel, up 55%. Commodities reporting declines were non-metallic minerals, down 18.7%, and grain mill products, down 2%.

 

Read more at: http://www.railwayage.com/breaking-news/aar-freight-traffic-strong-during-holiday-week.html

CREATE partners apply TIGER funds to five projects

 

In late 2010, Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency (CREATE) Program partners obligated all of the funds garnered from a $100 million Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant that was finalized in July.

 

Obligating the federal funds within five months exemplifies the public-private partners' commitment to "embracing the intent of the TIGER grant program — putting people to work and getting projects completed,” said Gary Hannig, secretary of the Illinois Department of Transportation (a CREATE partner), in a prepared statement.

 

Read more at:  http://www.progressiverailroading.com/news/article/CREATE-partners-apply-TIGER-funds-to-five-projects--25402

 

BTW: if you want to see what CREATE means for passenger rail in the midwest:

 

http://www.createprogram.org/PDF/PDF%201-20-10/CREATE%20Passenger%20Benefits%201_2010%20FINAL.pdf

Union Pacific: Coming 'Round the Bend

By ROBIN GOLDWYN BLUMENTHAL

Barron's

 

If you listen carefully, you can almost hear the whistle blowing. Union Pacific, the nation's largest railroad, is getting ready to barrel down the tracks.

 

With oil prices up, trucks are proving increasingly weak competition. With demand for commodities booming, there's plenty for Union Pacific to haul across its 33,000 miles of track. And the company has been cutting costs and preparing to raise prices.

 

As the economy picks up, there may be no stopping this train. Earnings per share are likely to come in at about $6.50 this year, up from $5.43 in 2010, says Lisa Dong, a portfolio manager and analyst at the Westwood Holdings Group in Dallas, which added to its position in Union Pacific in the third quarter. Dong sees the stock (ticker: UNP) at $117 by year end, up more than 25%. Within three years, she says, the shares could approach $140.

 

Read more at: http://online.barrons.com/article/SB50001424052970203793504576059952586701430.html?mod=BOL_twm_fs

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

AAR Reports 2010 Traffic Saw Solid Gains

2010 Saw Second Lowest Annual Carload Total On Record

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Jan. 11, 2011 – The Association of American Railroads (AAR) today reported that 2010 saw annual total carload traffic on U.S. railroads increase 7.3 percent with 14.8 million total carloads, compared with 13.8 million carloads in 2009. Total annual intermodal traffic in 2010 increased 14.2 percent with 11.3 million total truck trailers and shipping containers, compared with 9.9 million trailers and containers in 2009.

 

While the carload and intermodal traffic percentage increases in 2010 are the largest year-over-year increases since the AAR data series began in 1988, 2010 still saw the second lowest total annual carloads on record behind 2009. The combined increase in total annual carloads and intermodal trailers and containers is also roughly equivalent to approximately 20,000 additional trains moving in 2010, compared with 2009.

 

"Like the economy in general, rail traffic in 2010 recovered some lost ground, but not nearly all of it," said AAR Senior Vice President John T. Gray. "That being said, monthly rail traffic increases were broad based, supporting the idea that economic recovery likewise is broad based."

 

Carloads in December 2010 were up 9.4 percent over December 2009, while intermodal traffic for the month was up 13.3 percent compared with the same period in 2009. Seasonally adjusted data for December 2010 showed month-to-month gains, with carloads up 1.9 percent from November 2010 and intermodal traffic up 0.3 percent from the month before.

 

All of the 19 commodity categories tracked by AAR saw carload increases in 2010 compared with the prior year. However, all categories were still down compared with 2008. The categories with the greatest annual gains in 2010 were: metallic ores up 154,595 carloads or 89.2 percent compared with 2009; metals and metal products up 146,957 carloads or 44.9 percent, and chemicals up 131,127 carloads or 9.6 percent.

 

In 2010, coal accounted for 45.4 percent of all U.S. carload traffic, down from the all-time high of 48.2 percent in 2009. Chemicals came in a distant second, representing 10.1 percent of all carloads, followed by grain at 7.8 percent. Containers led the U.S. intermodal traffic segment in 2010, with a record high of 84.9 percent of intermodal traffic, up from 83.4 percent in 2009.

 

Railroads continued to bring employees back to work and cars out of storage last year. As of Jan. 1, 2011, railroads had 316,271 cars in storage, representing roughly 20.8 percent of the North American railcar fleet. That means railroads last year brought 132,284 cars out of storage. As of November 2010, the most recent month for rail employment data, the nation’s major Class I railroads employed 155,042 people, up nearly 8,000 employees from November 2009.

 

http://www.aar.org/NewsAndEvents/Press-Releases/2011/01/11-rti.aspx

JANUARY 13, 2011, 3:23 P.M. ET.

 

Burlington Northern CEO Expects '11 GDP Growth In High 3% Range

  By Bob Sechler

  Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

 

The head of Burlington Northern Santa Fe said he expects growth in U.S. gross domestic product in the high 3% range this year, a rate he noted bodes well for transport companies overall.

 

"Anytime you have GDP above 3%, it translates to fairly positive shipping growth for both the rail industry and the trucking industry," Chief Executive Matthew K. Rose said in an interview Thursday.

 

Rose said a number of factors should contribute to 2011 GDP growth that he forecast in the neighborhood of 3.7%, including an economy still "bouncing off the bottom" in the wake of the extended downturn, as well as a recent tax rule change that will enable companies to write off 100% of big capital investments.

 

Read more at: http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110113-712619.html?mod=dist_smartbrief

Rail Traffic Jumps in First Week of January

John D. Boyd | Jan 13, 2011 7:37PM GMT

The Journal of Commerce Online - News Story

 

Traffic surged at major North American railroads in the first full week of January, compared with the same point in 2010, as bulk carload shipments jumped 16.1 percent and intermodal moves increased 7.5 percent.

 

Year-over-year gains were even stronger for the U.S. owned rail lines that account for most rail activity. The Association of American Railroads said the big U.S. carriers - mostly Class I railroads plus a few regional lines that report to the AAR - saw carloads rise 20.1 percent from a year earlier while intermodal grew 8.6 percent.

 

The volume spikes could partly reflect catch-up traffic from recent yearend holidays and weather delays, as a series of tough winter storms struck various sections of the continent over the past month. A new storm earlier this week in the South and Northeast could shrink volume levels for the week that ends Jan. 15.

 

Read more at: http://www.joc.com/rail-intermodal/rail-traffic-jumps-first-week-january

The freight railroads seem to be rising out of this recession as fast as they fell into it.

Interesting interview with the CEO of Norfolk Southern, Wick Moorman.... one of the more progressive minds in modern railroading.  The interview covers a broad range of topics fom freight rail to new "green railroad technology to passenger rail.

 

http://www.railwayage.com/breaking-news/railroader-of-the-year-on-video.html

And a little closer to home...a small railroad grows business....

 

Railroad operator finds a half mile of track, plans to service steel companies

Published: Monday, January 24, 2011, 4:59 PM    Updated: Tuesday, January 25, 2011, 7:29 AM

By Robert Schoenberger, The Plain Dealer

 

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Finding $5 in a jacket pocket is nice. Finding a gift card you thought you'd lost is great. But Bill Brown has those two beat. He found nearly a half mile of long-forgotten railroad lines.

 

"We would go by on our line and not even have any idea it was there," said Brown, co-founder and chief financial officer of the Cleveland Commercial Railroad, a short line run by train enthusiasts.

 

Cleveland Commercial in 2009 leased an unused rail line from industry giant Norfolk Southern that runs from Cleveland to Mantua. At the time, Brown said the company wanted to offer rail service to several steel processing companies in Bedford and Cleveland, but running new lines proved to be too expensive.

 

fullstory at: http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2011/01/railroad_operators_finds_a_hal.html

I know exactly where that siding is. I too have scoured that area using bing and google maps. But bing does a better job with its birdseye views.

 

Now if CCR would scour the east end of the line and recognize the huge opportunities in moving sand from quarries in/near Mantua. Portage County is the state's second-largest producer of sand, and most of the quarries are along the Cuyahoga River from Mantua south. Mantua could be a sand loading point for CCR, but that would require rehabbing the rail from the Stouffer's plant in Solon east to Mantua -- a distance of about 15 miles. But at least the tracks are still mostly there.

Give Bill Brown a call and suggest it.  He's a pretty down to earth guy.

Time to start "working on the railroad"?

Hiring activity, retirements are on the rise for the rail industry, says industry data.

 

By Mark B. Solomon

 

Looking for a job? The latest data says you might want to try working on—or with—a railroad.

 

About 67,000 rail employees, accounting for 30 percent of the industry's workforce, will be eligible for retirement over the next five years, according to data from the Railroad Retirement Board. In addition, the industry has increased its hiring activity in response to improving traffic levels, according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR).

 

Monthly data submitted by the railroads to the Surface Transportation Board, the federal agency overseeing the industry, showed that overall rail employment rose in December by 5.2 percent over the year-earlier period.

 

Full story at: http://www.dcvelocity.com/articles/20110125_railroad_jobs_open_up/

It's supposed to be a pretty good job, actually, and not a particularly easy one to get.

 

Incidentally, I don't know if this was posted here, but former Mississippi State standout cornerback Keith Fitzhugh actually turned down a short-term contract with the NFL's NY Jets in order to keep his job as a conductor on the Norfolk Southern:

 

http://www.sportingnews.com/nfl/story/2010-12-08/fitzhugh-turns-down-jets-to-keep-job-as-conductor

 

There were a couple of people bewildered at the decision on the blogs and news comments, but others piped in and said that it might actually have been a very economically rational thing to do, given that he was going to be getting a league-minimum contract for only the last part of the season and any playoff run (which, in hindsight, didn't last long).  It could have worked out for him in the NFL if he'd impressed enough people to get a longer-term contract after the season, but he'd already gotten cut from both the Jets and Ravens rosters and was only being offered the short-term contract because the Jets' backfield was depleted by injuries.  Staying the with the stable, biweekly-paycheck-paying bird in hand might not have been crazy.

A friend of mine from college is a locomotive engineer at Norfolk Southern. He earns better than $80,000 per year, yet turns down many runs because he likes to attend rail conferences around the country and he also owns a farm. Some his locomotive engineer colleagues who work more hours per week than he does pull in more than $100,000 per year easily.

 

Admittedly though, sometimes the job is tough. NS managers are very strict (they call their employer Nazi Southern). Employees can spend many hours away from home in crew bases in other cities. When there are mechanical issues you may have to walk the entire length of a train (some freight trains are two miles long) and back to inspect it in all kinds of weather. And when someone drives into the path of your train you have to deal with the psychological after-effects and the memory of the look on the motorist's face just before you kill them.

 

Keith Fitzhugh's story was posted somewhere here on UO but I don't remember where. He was actually a conductor-trainee -- that means he's guaranteed a job unless he screws up or takes a leave from it. He also had a family to take care of (one of whom was ill, if I remember). If it was just him relying on the paycheck, I can see him taking a run at his football dream for a brief time. But since his family was counting on him, you have to take the steady long-term job. And since it's a good-paying job in a stable, steadily growing industry, I think he made the sensible choice.

Give Bill Brown a call and suggest it.  He's a pretty down to earth guy.

Sounds like KJP could be CCR's 5th or 6th employee..

FedEx to use rail intermodal service for first time in 40-year history, NS says

 

Yesterday, FedEx Freight Corp. announced it's launching a new unified less-than-truckload (LTL) network, and offering new FedEx Freight® Priority and FedEx Freight® Economy LTL services. The changes are designed to meet the needs of today’s LTL shippers, according to the FedEx Corp. subsidiary.

 

The new services will involve rail intermodal, according to Norfolk Southern Railway. FedEx recently selected the Class I as its preferred eastern rail carrier for the new domestic services, said NS Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Donald during a fourth-quarter earnings conference on Jan. 25.

 

Read more at: http://www.progressiverailroading.com/news/article/FedEx-to-use-rail-intermodal-service-for-first-time-in-40year-history-NS-says--25647

 

FedEx to use rail intermodal service for first time in 40-year history, NS says

 

 

That. Is. Huge.

 

That tells me that not only is FedEx liking the low-cost component of railroads, but their greater ability to offer a time-sensitive, reliable and quality service. And FedEx may also be reading the oil supply/cost tea leaves and is getting its feet wet in the rail business for possible additional usage in the near future. And why not? It's main competitor UPS has been using intermodal rail for 30+ years.

FedEx to use rail intermodal service for first time in 40-year history, NS says

 

 

That. Is. Huge.

 

That tells me that not only is FedEx liking the low-cost component of railroads, but their greater ability to offer a time-sensitive, reliable and quality service. And FedEx may also be reading the oil supply/cost tea leaves and is getting its feet wet in the rail business for possible additional usage in the near future. And why not? It's main competitor UPS has been using intermodal rail for 30+ years.

 

HUGE INDEED! If FedEx has a positive experience with the railroads, might it be possible to go a step further and team with the RR's and Amtrak to provide 1-2 day parcel service in a test market and then go nationwide? Imagine!

Traffic Outlook  2/14/2011

 

Chemical, coal and intermodal demand to drive rail traffic growth this year, Baird says

 

Although rail volumes so far in 2011 have been mixed, there is underlying stability evident and the traffic outlook remains favorable, according to the February edition of Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc.’s “Domestic Truck, Intermodal and Rail Trends” report.

 

“Despite the [severe] weather disrupting volumes and train speeds, encouraging signs still exist with seasonal trends from chemicals (a leading indicator), accelerating coal exports, intermodal growth opportunities and industrial volumes that are still 15 percent off peak levels (thus expecting catch-up demand in 2011),” Baird analysts said in the report. “The demand outlook remains solid given expectations for continued economic recovery, secular intermodal growth and solid industrial end-market demand.”

 

 

Read more at: http://www.progressiverailroading.com/news/article/Chemical-coal-and-intermodal-demand-to-drive-rail-traffic-growth-this-year-Baird-says--25782

Local farmers feed into banner year for rail freight

New facility expected to initially add 600 cars to line.

By Josh Sweigart, Staff Writer

Updated 10:06 AM Saturday, February 12, 2011

 

SPRINGFIELD — Thanks in large part to a good year for local farmers, the West Central Ohio Port Authority had the second best year in its history in 2010.

 

The regional rail line’s track carried 7,591 carloads last year, WESTCO Secretary Zachary Balassone told the Clark County-Springfield Transportation Coordinating Committee Friday.

 

“This is back up to where we want to be,” he said, crediting a good yield for grain and increased fertilizer usage.

 

Full story at: http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/news/springfield-news/local-farmers-feed-into-banner-year-for-rail-freight-1079004.html

All Aboard Ohio recently advocated to the U.S. House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee that the eligibility of tax credits be expanded to more than just short-line railroad capital improvements. They should also apply to Class 1 freight railroads, intercity/high-speed passenger rail and transit projects to increase the speed of projects and the involvement of the private-sector in them.

 

Here is an informative, graphic document showing what tax credits have done for short-line freight railroads.....

 

http://www.aslrra.org/45gsuccess.pdf

 

____________

 

 

House bill would extend short-line tax credit another six years

2/25/2011

 

On Feb. 15, Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-Kan.) introduced the Short Line Railroad Rehabilitation and Investment Act of 2011 (H.R. 721), which would extend the Section 45G short-line tax credit through Dec. 31, 2017.

 

Co-sponsored by Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), Jim Costa (D-Calif.), Jerry Costello (D-Ill.) and Bill Shuster (R-Pa.), the bill also would allow tax credit eligibility for new short lines formed after Jan. 1, 2005, and before Jan. 1, 2011. H.R. 721 has been referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.

 

In December, the passage of the Middle Class Tax Relief Act of 2010 extended the short-line tax credit through 2011. Originally enacted in January 2005, the Section 45G provision enables regionals and short lines to claim a tax credit of 50 cents for every dollar spent on infrastructure improvements, up to a cap of $3,500 per mile of owned or leased track.

 

The tax credit helps fund more than $300 million worth of short-line infrastructure improvements annually, according to American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association (ASLRRA) estimates.

 

READ MORE AT:

http://www.progressiverailroading.com/news/article/House-bill-would-extend-shortline-tax-credit-another-six-years--25873

Published: February 28, 2011 3:00 a.m.

Railroads boast fuel advantage

Trucks struggle as diesel costs rise

Mark Clothier | Bloomberg News

 

DETROIT – U.S. railroads’ fuel-efficiency advantage over trucking companies may expand as they boost investments in technology while truckers must put more of their money into personnel.

 

Freight railroads such as Union Pacific Corp. are investing in systems that automatically shut off engines under certain conditions and software that coordinates trains’ movements more efficiently. The trucking industry, working to meet its first-ever fuel-efficiency standards, is being forced to divert more spending to attract workers and battle increased competition as more trucks fill the highways.

 

“Railroads by far are leading the pack in terms of investing in fuel-saving initiatives,” Walter Spracklin, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets in Toronto, said in an interview. “Driving fuel costs down through lower consumption rates is the focus in every operator I talk to.”

 

Read more at: http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20110228/BIZ/302289988/1031/BIZ

Who knows -- maybe we'll see some railbanked lines get reactivated. One of my personal hopes is that the former Erie-Lackawanna line out of Cleveland is among them. With the 2007 tapping of the Marcellus Shale natural gas field (possibly the second-largest in the world) in Pennsylvania, New York and other states, this line could see new life. It gets near Mantua, the heart of Portage County's sand/gravel production. Ohio is the nation's third-largest producer of sand/gravel (trailing California and Texas) and Portage is Ohio's third-largest sand producer and Ohio's closest to Marcellus. Lots of sand is needed for hydraulic "fracking" of shale to reach the natural gas. There is also a plastics plant in Mantua Township that took in 10-20 cars per week and kept the rail line (Randall Secondary) active eastward from Solon until 1993 when Conrail went into another "asset shrink" mode.

 

In July 1984, and despite living a half-mile from this rail line for 15 years, I took the only pictures of any train on the Randall Secondary. I heard the eastbound local whistle for the Pettibone Road crossing. For some reason I jumped in the car and sped over to the Brewster Road crossing next to Sea World. I got there just in time to take these two pictures:

 

 

 

BTW, if you'd like a map tour of this line, check out this:

http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&encType=1&cid=348BCA3DF4404755!242

Cross-posted from the "Rethinking transportation in the USA" section.....

 

http://allaboardohio.org/2011/03/02/federal-report-transportation-free-market-is-side-tracked/

 

Federal report: transportation free-market is side-tracked

Private-sector tax credits for rails will create jobs, cut costs, restore efficiency

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — March 2, 2011

 

Contact:

Ken Prendergast

All Aboard Ohio Executive Director

(216) 288-4883

[email protected]

 

CLEVELAND – The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), a nonpartisan research body, released an insightful report showing that greater use of fuel-efficient rail and water transportation modes is discouraged by government policies that favor less-fuel efficient trucking.

 

The report, “Surface Freight Transportation: A Comparison of the Costs of Road, Rail, and Waterways Freight Shipments That Are Not Passed on to Consumers” is timely because the U.S. Congress and the Ohio General Assembly are now debating their respective multi-year transportation budgets. The GAO report says:

 

“If government policy gives one mode a cost advantage over another, by, for example, not recouping all the costs of that mode's use of infrastructure, then shipping prices and customers’ use of freight modes can be distorted, reducing the overall efficiency of the nation’s economy.”

 

One fact was most troubling: “GAO estimates that freight trucking costs that were not passed on to consumers were at least 6 times greater than rail costs.”

 

The 67-page report, including a highlights page, is available at:

http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-134

 

GAO suggested “policy changes that align prices with marginal costs on a shipment-by-shipment basis would provide the greatest economic benefit” or “charging user fees based on average costs, subsidizing more efficient alternatives, or broadly applying safety or emissions regulations – can change the overall distribution of freight across modes.”

 

All Aboard Ohio testified Feb. 19 at a U.S. House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee field hearing in Columbus that the upcoming renewal of the federal surface transportation law should include tax credits for railroad capital investments (including federally mandated Positive Train Control installations on railroad-owned properties) and for right-of-way operating costs that their trucking competitors do not pay on government-owned highways:

• Dispatching and traffic management;

• Liability insurance;

• Policing and security;

• Public-benefit costs (eg: corridor preservation, hosting passenger rail).

 

Tax credits will accelerate transportation project delivery, reduce government bureaucracy and increase private-sector investment in transportation projects. All Aboard Ohio’s testimony and a summary is available at:

http://tinyurl.com/4tr83gt

 

“All Aboard Ohio is concerned about public policies that affect freight rail because a healthy freight rail system that is able to compete for high-value, time-sensitive cargo is more compatible with fast passenger rail services,” said All Aboard Ohio President Bill Hutchison. “Indeed, before all levels of government got involved in building, owning and subsidizing highways, time-sensitive freight and passenger services coexisted on the same tracks – sometimes on the same trains – to a far greater extent than today.

 

“It’s long overdue to reintroduce the free market to our nation’s transportation system for the benefit of consumers who are hurting from rising costs of food, fuel and finished goods. The federal surface transportation law renewal is a great time to do this,” Hutchison concluded.

 

END

^I wonder what the Buckeye Policy Institute would say about all of these subsidies to the trucking industry... oh, wait a minute... I know:  absolutely nothing.