What do you think about the Fred Frailey's "Market Power" moniker for the BNSF Transcon?

[Anonymous]

I thoughly enjoyed Fred Frailely's article in Oct. 2004 issue of TRAINS about the BNSF Transcon. Besides closing the double track gap and super terminals like Willow Springs that can turn a complete trainset within two hours.

I was struck by the notion that BNSF has built an intermodal franchise that will will attract customers on its own to the point that the RR could pick and choose with whom it does business with. He said that they are other potential "market power" corridors out there like NS's Harrisburg to Chicago and Atlanta to Cailf. w/BNSF and KCS. But CSX's ( ex New York Central/B&O) New Jersey/New England could be market power corridor but vast underinvestment in recent years prevent it from being so.

Do you agree??

And what are other potential "Market Power" corridors in North America??

ANd also what do you think about CSX's New York City area to Florida "I95 Corridor" becoming a true "market power" traffic lane be it for intermodal, bimodal or carload??

[Junctionfan]

Montreal /Toronto / Chicago is a pretty good market to cultivate. CN and CP don't really do the market justice right now.

[bobwilcox]

Mark- I don't understand what you mean by production sources. Do you mean a manufacturing plant or someone wanting to use a port or distribution facility on a succesful route.

[bobwilcox]

Mark-thanks for your comments. I can take a long time for these shifts to take place. It has been almost 25 years since Staggers and there are still a few big, profitable and expanding chemical plants in TX served by just one rr. This occurs because many other factors drive their costs besides transportation costs. In the commodity plastics business all physical distribution costs will run 15-20% of total costs with transportation costs running less than 10% of the total costs.

Bob Wilcox

[Anonymous]

One other tidbit - it is much easier for a trucker to add capacity than it is a railroad. Let's say there grew up a need to move a great deal of freight between two points difficult to serve directly by rail - perhaps between Las Vegas NV and Spokane. It would cost BNSF or UP enormous amounts of money to create a rail line between these two points; but the Interstate highway system serves both of them.

One other area where a trucker is at an advantage - time freight. If I were a manufacturer that absolutely has to have a part in two days, I would not use rail, except perhaps on the transcon. Railroads can excel in carrying products where it doesn't really matter how long it takes to get from Point A to Point B, as long as it is delivered regularly, i.e. once a day. For example, a power plant doesn't care as much whether a unit train of coal takes 7 or 14 days in transit as long as it is there when it is needed. Try that with lettuce or oranges.

[Anonymous]

With Russia doing Transcon Containers, It might make sence for shippers to go overland Russia but fears of Russian Mob may be justified