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Why do railroads run intermodal so fast?

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Gabe, Congrats on another excellent topic. Greyhounds pretty much nails it, but your focus should be on equipment inventory costs as well. For cross country traffic, the difference between 40 mph and 60 mph is at least one day. If it takes 10 days round trip at the faster max speed vs 12 days round trip at the slower max speed, then the faster speed results in 5 extra revenue trips per year. Those 5 extra trips can mean you pay off your equipment rents a lot sooner, so you're more likely to achieve profitability sooner. Unfortunately, for many other commodities, this idea of "warehousing in transit" has infected the supply chain, and it has introduced a sort of backhanded inefficiency. Yes, warehousing is an expense that one tries to minimize as much as possible, but if warehousing must take place, it is better if it takes place in an actual warehouse than in transit. One giant 400,000 square foot building is more efficient for warehousing than 100 4,000 square foot boxcars or 160 ISO containers. One wonders if this warehousing in transit concept has induced slower transit speeds. Remember the posts regarding the car of lumber that gets shuttled around the country here and there as the forwarders play pattycakes with their customers? Who's paying the costs of this more expensive form of warehousing? Ultimately, it is all of us, as such represents a loss of productivity. You also should not discount speds analysis. If you've already paid for an item, do you want it sooner or later? A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, or so the saying goes. It has been noted in other posts (by yours truly) that trucks of all types travel at the same speed on the nation's highways (outside of mountain grades), irregardless of the commodity being transported. A truckload of gravel travels the same 60, 65, or 70 mph speed limit as the truckload of perishables. Why are the railroads so invested in this idea that only the varnish goes the highest allowable speed, while the mixed freight or the unit train of aggregates must clog up the mainline at half that speed? Fuel efficiency is not the answer. The savings on fuel costs by travelling slower are outweighed by the combination of the equipment's revenue utilization and the axiom of doing your best to placate the customer (by getting his goods to him in the most expedient manner). Or to put it another way, you cannot conserve your way to an increased customer base.
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