If intermodal were to stop today, the Interstate System would be useless for autos as trucks would be bumper to bumper plus think of the fuel usage.
Not just Intermodal stop all Freight trains and that will be bad.
Russell
Nope. Intermodal is - sadly - only a small fraction of the truck trips or ton-miles that are running these days, so adding a few more wouldn't usually cause delays to be a lot worse. Intermodal now often depends on the most congested miles for final delivery, too - so nothing would change there, either.
- Paul North.
If you should drive I-40 between Albuquerque and Barstow, which has many on the road trucks, and then imagine the 70 or so intermodal trains per day, each more than one mile in length, being added you may reach the same conclusion as the thread originator. But of course I-40 is not the norm.
diningcar If you should drive I-40 between Albuquerque and Barstow, which has many on the road trucks, and then imagine the 70 or so intermodal trains per day, each more than one mile in length, being added you may reach the same conclusion as the thread originator. But of course I-40 is not the norm.
And at least between Flagstaff and Kingman, I-40 westbound is in sad shape. Right hand lane wants to disassemble your vehicle, left lane a little better but still something of a torture test. At least that's what it seemed like last summer.
That is - if you could even find enough drivers to ==put== them on the interstate in the first place.
normneuberger If intermodal were to stop today, the Interstate System would be useless for autos as trucks would be bumper to bumper plus think of the fuel usage.
1440 containers would equate to ONE truck passing a given point per minute, which I wouldn't call Bumper to Bumper, even at one truck every 15 seconds, that would be 5760 containers a day. I wouldn't call 4 trucks per minute Bumper to Bumperwhat corridor are you talking about, and what is the container traffic volume on it?
And as mentioned already where are you going to find another 5760 drivers for one corridor, the government is already doing every thing it can to make Truck Driving a job that nobody wants to do. I have 27 years experience, and would not advise anyone to get into the field today, because of rediculous regulations nowdays.
Doug
May your flanges always stay BETWEEN the rails
Assuming 75 wells per train and double stacking, that would multiply out to 10,500 containers on 70 intermodal trains. Of course, BNSF still has a lot of TOFC, but many trains would also have more than 75 wells. If 10,500 containers and trailers per day was actually the number, that would equate to about 7.2 per minute on I-40, or 3.6 per minute eastbound and 3.6 per minute westbound added to the current traffic flows. Whatever the actual number is, it is indeed substantial, and Mr. Buffett certainly made a shrewd investment acquiring BNSF.
When I drive I-78 (Allentown to Harrisburg, PA), I oftten count the trucks going the other way. A typical figure is 10 to 12 trucks per minute average (120+/- MPH closing speed, we're each going 60 MPH in opposite directions).
Meanwhile, I could eat lunch next to the parallel NS 2-track main line, and not have much chance of seeing any kind of train, let alone an intermodal.
My observations elsewhere here on the East Coast are similar.
I think Mr. North has the right of this argument. Don't forget, railroad traffic is concentrated as truck traffic is not. All those containers one sees on a given stack train would not necessarily be going down the same highway and certainly not at the same time.
A few nights in a hotel beside I-35 in Texas last fall showed me that, for all their problems, trucks are alive and well, the equivalent of a stack/TOFC train passing my window every few minutes. I know the U.P. wasn't anywhere near that busy, because I had just ridden it all the way from Chicago.
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