CN closes intermodal terminals in Wisconsin

[Anonymous]

[:(] Canadian National has closed the intermodal terminals in Stevens Point, Neenah and Green Bay. With intermodal traffic growing in importance, this seems like a strange move. Surely there is enough trailers moving into and out of Green Bay to support a pig train. WC ran their 218 train out of there for years and made a profit doing it. What changed?

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jashauer1

[:(] Canadian National has closed the intermodal terminals in Stevens Point, Neenah and Green Bay. With intermodal traffic growing in importance, this seems like a strange move. Surely there is enough trailers moving into and out of Green Bay to support a pig train. WC ran their 218 train out of there for years and made a profit doing it. What changed?

Nothing changed, corporate greed is still rampant as ever. Close the yard, fire the workers, and the railroad makes more money. The big shots make bigger bonuses and the stock holder make more dividens. Why should a railroad big shot pay you your money when he can stick it in his pocket instead.

[Kathi Kube]

Do you know if traffic in Green Bay is growing or slowing? Or is there just another route that's less-costly to maintain? Yeah, it doesn't seem to make sense, but there's got to be more to the story that we just don't know.

Kathi

[Anonymous]

There is only one route left into Green Bay, the old CNW/FRVR main through Appleton, and the old CNW north out of town. Traffic levels seem to be about the same.

[mudchicken]

It's cheaper to dray the pigs and cans to larger TOFC/COFC ramps nearby (Milwaukee?, Chicago?)....It's a decision made by the CN beancounters in Chicago. The marketing people are probably in advanced Chicken Little syndrome now running around in panic and disgust. If the ramps come back, you know the CN beancounters screwed-up and forgot about the beanplanters & beangrowers...Wait and see.....

Mudchicken[banghead]

[Anonymous]

The intermodal volume from Green Bay to Chicago was solid. CN wanted out and so they took a rate hike that essentially doubled the rate on that lane. At that rate, it was very comparable to over the road trucking. CN had major service problems from Schiller Park, IL (near Ohare) to Harvey, IL (their Chicago area Terminal - far South side.) If you can move it at the same cost on a truck and avoid the service problems on CN, it was a no brainer for the intermodal companies that used that train.

I think that the former operator, WC, had a philosophy that allowed them a lower rate of return on this train and still justify operating it. I'd also suspect that CN piled a heap of additional corporate overhead onto this train, that WC didn't have and all of a sudden , "Well golly gee, It ain't making money!" When the train died, did they get rid of all of that overhead back at their HQ? Doubt it. It just gets piled even higher onto the next thing in line.

CN wants to significantly increase their intermodal profitability, but in doing so, they are making their company harder to do business with. Check out their new IMX (Intermodal Excellence Program.) Lots of restrictions and financial penalites for the intermodal marketing companies who actually bring the freight to them.

[Anonymous]

I think that it was a very good route they had a TON of Schinder National and J.B. HUNT Trailers

[Anonymous]

Hunt used it about 6-8 yrs ago then dropped out. They actually had started a JB Hunt dedicated train but it only lasted a few months back in the mid or early 90's.

Schneider National was definitely the big player on that train. Sometimes trains 218/219 would be all orange with possibly 6-10 international boxes or other odd domestic boxes.

[mudchicken]

Dblstack:

While we were cussin & discussin, the beancounters just sold the beanpatch![:O]

There's a moral in here somewhere about what happens when the beancounters are given too prominent a place in the company....

Muddy Bird[banghead]

[Anonymous]

Hi Muddy Bird,
I'll take a piece of that action, but here's a little different spin. I'm actually a bean counter for one of the biggest intermodal companies (and by the way, I take no offense at all to the moniker. That's what I call myself.) That's how I got close to this particular issue. Here's how I think about it. Whilst counting the beans, I serve up lots of data to the operating people. Its incumbent on them to "use the data for good, not evil" (to borrow an old phrase.) There are times where I point out problems that they hadn't seen before. There are other times that they tell me "I'm full of beans" and that I need to look at some other factors in my analysis. The problem as I see it at CN is the operating management maybe can't think for themself and can't challenge the bean counters on the data that they bring forward.

In this particular instance, what is the real cost of running 1 more light, quick train on a piece of RR that is not over capacity? It actually helps absorb existing fixed costs and has pretty much only direct variable costs (ie. engine crew, fuel, locomotive ownership/ maint, & car hire. They were moving mostly private trailers (painted in a glorious shade of orange) and so there was no equipment per diem costs to them on the stuff that they were hauling.

Obviously a bean counter at their predecessor (WC) had it figured out and they made money doing it, but the folks at CN couldn't figure it out. Maybe it was the "new-math" that tangled them up, or maybe it was something in the US to CN currency conversion. Oh well, wither another good train.

[eolafan]

AMEN BROTHER!
[:(!][:(!][:(!]The company I work for is a perfect example, the beancounters got a new warehouse management system installed to "speed up shipments" to customers and that ended up slowing down things and generally screwing things up BIG TIME[:(][:(]...and did the bean counters get fired for costing the company literally millions of dollars directly and many good customers indirectly?[?].....NOT IN YOUR LIFE.[xx(][xx(][xx(]

QUOTE: Originally posted by mudchicken

Dblstack:

While we were cussin & discussin, the beancounters just sold the beanpatch![:O]

There's a moral in here somewhere about what happens when the beancounters are given too prominent a place in the company....

Muddy Bird[banghead]