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Triple Crown...still with long string of trailers...
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[quote]QUOTE: <i>Originally posted by oltmannd</i> <br /><br />[quote]QUOTE: <i>Originally posted by futuremodal</i> <br /><br />[quote]QUOTE: <i>Originally posted by MP173</i> <br />It is a amazing that NS has made this work. To me it must be a very low margin operation. [/quote] <br /> <br />Compared to what? TOFC? COFC? <br /> <br />All intermodal is low margin. <br />[/quote] <br /> <br />Nonsense. Re-read the NS article in last month's Trains. Particularly what Don Seale (SVP Mktg) has to say about Intermodal profitability. <br />[/quote] <br /> <br />You're talking about the October 2005 issue, right? I re-read the article twice and could not even find the name Don Seale. What is in there is this: There is a quote from Vice Chairman and CFO Hank Wolfe stating "Intermodal earns it's cost of capital - that's my <i>feeling</i>." (Italics mine) He goes on to state how the OR has gone down 5 points with 70% of the increased carloads being intermodal. Not to be too cynical, but that sounds more like a PR Newswire-type statement than a statement of transparent accountability. <br /> <br />What is also mentioned is that the Triple Crown operations are positioned in lanes mostly void of COFC and TOFC, e.g. the bi-modal operations are not allowed to compete head to head with the other intermodal traffic, so it's hard get a first hand accounting of how and if bi-modal might be superior to COFC and TOFC. One has to wonder what would accrue if bi-modal operations were <i>allowed</i> in all the viable intermodal lanes. Could it spell doom for traditional COFC and TOFC? Is that why NS's Intermodal honchos keep the RoadRailers out of other logical bi-modal lanes? <br /> <br />It is also mentioned that Triple Crown is growing faster than NS's other intermodal business, and is limited "only by the number of RoadRailers we own." Seems like yet another case of a rail company short selling itself for the sake of outdated tradition. If the bi-modal business has greater growth potential than the COFC and TOFC business, why wouldn't the company exploit that potential to maximize revenues to it's stockholders?
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