Yes. By a lot. The whole business changed. It used to be you fit your stuff in a 50/70 ton box car and the RR would find a backhaul. Trucks took the finished goods, high rate traffic and now RRs were stuck with low rate raw material moves.
Boutique cars were born to handle raw material more efficiently. Center beam cars, auto racks, DF equipment, end of car cushioning, high cubes... General service box car business died.
Rates are high and costs are low because shipper/consingee lanes are large, use dedicated, special equipment and are under contract. Efficiency of scale means customers really can't get a better deal from trucks.
But, the RRS ALREADY HAVE ALL OF THIS BUSINESS! There isn't "more" to get.
You "win" the RR game by stuffing as much traffic as possible down the fewest track miles. If you let intermodal dry up, your precious high margin carload traffic now has to bear more of the fixed cost...and stops being so high margin.
There is this notion that intermodal "is low margin", yet BNSF is predominantly intermodal - and throws gobs of cash to the bottom line. An frt car is doing well if it makes a turn a month. Intermodal cars do better than a turn a week. Intermodal trains generally make better use of long pool crews...(and could do even better with some investment...and I don't mean higher tack speed)
The goal is to MAKE MONEY, not have high margins. OR chasing is just dumb. Net $$ is where it's at.
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
...also, Scheduled Railroading is good. Having an efficient blocking/classification plan is good. Having an efficient train plan is good. These are things RRs did in the 1990s-2000s to cut costs from their carload network. It worked very well.
DPUs are good (done safely...) They also help with costs.
Trying to wring 11:59 out of every employee every time you call them...just because the law allows it is bad.
Trying to get by with the bare minimum of resources below your ability to cope with your process variability is bad.
Focusing on costs instead of value is always bad.
Not having a clue what the next 20 years might look like and what you need to do to get there is also bad.
oltmannd...also, Scheduled Railroading is good.
The Central was doing it in the early 1960's. I have an ETT from the period that gives closeout times for all major terminals. Be there, or be square, as they say...
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
MidlandMikeAs for BH, Warren Buffet is in his 90s, and when he is no longer in the picture I expect a feeding frenzy over BH.
Warren Buffet is grooming his Son, Howard to take over as Chairman. Some guy named Abel will be CEO, so in my view it will be an orderly transition. People are freaked out now because he has a large cash position and his stock holdings are not that diversified but then..........he has a lot of wholly owned companies so he is still OK in my view. I think BNSF is a keeper. Though I am not sure why BH has not bought another railroad like CN.........which he convinced Bill Gates to buy into.
tree68 oltmannd ...also, Scheduled Railroading is good. The Central was doing it in the early 1960's. I have an ETT from the period that gives closeout times for all major terminals. Be there, or be square, as they say...
oltmannd ...also, Scheduled Railroading is good.
Have a Schedules and Classification manual from the B&O from the early 50's. With their 'Timesaver Service' from the after War period, I am certain they had scheduled freight service for most of the 20th Century.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Kind of... PC and Conrail continued to have schedules and "next connection" for their yards and terminals. But, actual scheduled Railroading involves having a plan fir every car including arrival times and interchange times and updating them over time.
It also involves having an operating plan that can be executed everyday with no ad-hocing or annulling. There's a big data component to this. Conrail never really got there although they pushed hard in the mid 90s. NS did it with Toroughbred operating plan in 2002-04. CSX shortly after with One Plan.
RRs did have schedules for trains and certain customers with service guarantees...auto, chemical, etc. But, generally operated to maximize cars per crew start, combining, annulling, delaying train starts as needed.
oltmannd tree68 oltmannd ...also, Scheduled Railroading is good. The Central was doing it in the early 1960's. I have an ETT from the period that gives closeout times for all major terminals. Be there, or be square, as they say... Kind of... PC and Conrail continued to have schedules and "next connection" for their yards and terminals. But, actual scheduled Railroading involves having a plan fir every car including arrival times and interchange times and updating them over time. It also involves having an operating plan that can be executed everyday with no ad-hocing or annulling. There's a big data component to this. Conrail never really got there although they pushed hard in the mid 90s. NS did it with Toroughbred operating plan in 2002-04. CSX shortly after with One Plan.
Carriers have always had operating 'plans'. The big differences over the years have been the various tools available to track and enforce the plan, as well as the desire to enforce 'the plan' or some specific aspect of 'the plan'.
Recall at a point in time - CSX put emphasis on the 'premiere' trains - others be damned. I got to the point where the daily Waycross-Atlanta 'local' was run FOUR times within one 24 hour period - with the result being that by the time the 2nd, 3rd & 4th trains got to their set off points - the points had no room for the set offs and the resulting 'ad hoc' reaction to the situation.
Effective plans have to take into consideration not only how the railroad operates by also how the industries/customers operate and tender freight to be moved or received. Not all customers operate on a 7 day schedule. Plans are only as good as the emphasis Senior Management places upon operating in accordance with 'the plan'. If 'the plan' is actually followed, it becomes manifestly evident if the plan is a good or bad plan.
CMStPnP MidlandMike As for BH, Warren Buffet is in his 90s, and when he is no longer in the picture I expect a feeding frenzy over BH. Warren Buffet is grooming his Son, Howard to take over as Chairman. Some guy named Abel will be CEO, so in my view it will be an orderly transition. People are freaked out now because he has a large cash position and his stock holdings are not that diversified but then..........he has a lot of wholly owned companies so he is still OK in my view. I think BNSF is a keeper. Though I am not sure why BH has not bought another railroad like CN.........which he convinced Bill Gates to buy into.
MidlandMike As for BH, Warren Buffet is in his 90s, and when he is no longer in the picture I expect a feeding frenzy over BH.
I recall that WB was looking at two people to take over as CEO, and one of them asked BNSF why they weren't using PSR. Hopefully he is not the one you mentioned.
Bill Gates also got a commitment from WB that they would give away most of their wealth. Howard Buffet might not retain enough of the company to control it.
oltmanndOh, by the way, if you want to be around in another 30 years, figure out how to do ECP and electrify. Hint, hint, it's not using the ECP stuff you've been playing with. Mixing power and signal is a bad idea. Also, electrification isn't going to be primarily battery - it's catenary. You are going to need some gov't help.
Thankfully you have broached a topic many on here don't want to consider.
MidlandMikeI recall that WB was looking at two people to take over as CEO, and one of them asked BNSF why they weren't using PSR. Hopefully he is not the one you mentioned.
One wonders if they see PSR as a method of operation or a cash extraction tool...
Liquid asset syphoning tool disguised as an operating scheme.
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