Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
[quote user="Valleyline"]150 mile shipments by rail are hardly cost competitive with trucks, particularly if the RR is required to supply the specialized refrigerated equipment. Could it be that the shipper failed to disuss rates with BNSF before they built the place? I suspect the news story lacks all the facts.[/quote]You forget, the rule of thumb that states railroading isn't profitable except in the long haul doesn't apply to unit train operations.  Unit trains work in the long haul and short haul because there is no need for classification yards etc.  In other words, unit train operations don't need the longer hauls to compensate for the cost of carload aggregation.BNSF would actually make more money per ton mile with this short haul than they do on the long haul intermodal trains.  All they have to do is price under the baseline truck rate of around 0.09 or 0.10 per ton mile.  That opportunity for premium pricing is there regardless of whether this is just having the train stop in Quincy to off-load/up-load containers, or if the operation is a dedicated Quincy-Seattle train.
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag