Ranking of freight rail hubs

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know where I can find information about the ranking of cities--I guess it would be by volume--of freight rail hubs? Thank you.

[thirdrail1]

There is no such list, as volume would depend on whether you are talking about traffic originated, terminated, classified or just passing through. It would also depend on how you define "city". Most of the principal freight yards involved in handling freight in the Chicago area are are not actually in Chicago, for example. After what happenned on September 11, asking such a question may not be wise.

[Anonymous]

Well, they have those lists for everything else, including ports, airports, etc. All that would have to be done would agree on definitions which other lists do--e.g., value of shipments, weight of shipments, etc. Air cargo rankings do this. As far as being inside the city limits--port shipping stats agree on common definitions as to what geog. area constitutes a certain city/port

[thirdrail1]

Ports, airports, etc., are PUBLIC entities, and each is individual. On the other hand, railroads are PRIVATE entities, and only furnish data on a systemwide basis except when filing for abandonment of a specific line segment. Knowledge of what yards handle how much not only would be helpful to the competition, but to terrorists as well.

[wabash1]

going a little to the extream.... there is no such list that i know of. as far as the competition goes thats reaching.... i dont think the up will come into landers point on the ns and start hauling coal. the biggiest export port for coal in the world. and terroist is really out there couse if you think about it the dispatcher keeps us so far behind schedual that the terrorist never get the oppertunity to blow us up. but on the side of commodities the ns dont let the crew know whats on the train how can the terrorist know. we only know if we have haz-mat on. terrorist only want to scare and run they will kill at will but then run and hide. its not like a army that makes advances and comes in waves it might be 10 years before they try something again.

[mnwestern]

Joe,
Chicago generally is still regarded as the leading rail center in the U.S., if not the world. Other major Midwestern hubs include St. Louis and Kansas City, obviously, and also the Twin Cities. I would believe some of the Texas cities are major players, especially Houston, as well as the west ports of Seattle and L.A. Look at a rail map and see where the most lines are. There says somethings about the traffic there. Gregg, the terrorists have already beaten you.
T

[thirdrail1]

The busiest freight yards are not in major cities. The busiest point on UP is North Platte, Nebraska, and the busiest point on CSXT is Waycross, Georgia. These days, with run-through trains, only crews change at places like Chicago and New Orleans. I always throught NS was an odd railroad that treated its train crews like dirt, but I thought the conductor on ALL railroads had at least a train consist with commodities and tonnage if not the movement waybills anymore. When D. W. Brosnan was President of Southern, he treated managers like dirt too, throwing his newspaper on the floor on the business car and ordering his Vice Presidents to pick it up.

[wabash1]

well gregg we do have a train consist a tonnage profile list of trains tonnage in each car and some of the commodities are listed things not listed are booze,tires,electronics soforth high theft type stuff. before they started not listing these things you know who by the consignee name. waybills no longer are provided i never carried them anyways unless it was haz-mat. its unnessesarry paper to carry around. as if you dont have enough to carry anyways. and now as engineer all i want it tons how long and a glance at the profile. then im pulling. i dont care whats back there im not unloading it anyways.as far as the way they treat us. well every job has its good points and its bad. the up dont treat its employees any better, the csx and about all railroads do the same just some stand out more than others. and if i was making a 6 figure pay check and the boss told me to pick up his news paper i would. as long as he is paying what the heck.

[BRAKIE]

Hey Gregg,How about CSX/NS in Cincinniti?
As far as bosses goes ALL bosses can be a pain
in the old caboose.