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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by bobwilcox [quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by TomDiehl [quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by futuremodal - Foss Maritime, one of the four competing barge lines that use the Columbia-Snake River waterway system, is in favor of more rail to barge transloading, since capacity on the river is nowhere near the congestion point, while rail capacity in the Gorge is at the breaking point for both UP and BNSF. [/quote] "Rail capacity near the breaking point for both UP and BNSF," sounds like something I suggested earlier. [/quote] Gee the evil BNSF is at capacity so they want to reduce volume. I am shocked! [/quote] No, Bob, BNSF wants to force grain to be trucked to Ritzville, not to reduce volume. If BNSF wantd to reduce volume through the gorge, they should start trasnloading some export grain to barge at Pasco or Wallula, and thus take those long slow grain trains out of the gorge to free up capacity. As I explained earier, to do so would for the most part make the Ritzville facility superflous, and the only question then is if BNSF is willing to abandon their agreement with Templin LLC and leave them in the lurch the way they did the Whitman County GG's Fallon facility. There is ample capacity available over the Stampede Pass line, and the only limiting factor over Stevens Pass is that albatross of a tunnel. But they'd be fighting long 2.2% westbound grades, and with grain trains that operating nightmare would virtually shut down the Stevens Pass route, while sending a grain train over Stampede might take two days. If the traffic is bound for the lower Columbia ports, that's another day or so, and now the cycle has increased in time costs. Again, to clarify, for all rail operations, only the Gorge route is at the breaking point in terms of congestion. 2.2% grades over Stampede and Stevens preclude heavy trainsets. Stampede has ample capacity, but clearances through that tunnel do not allow double stacks, autoracks, or high cube boxcars. Stevens Pass isn't congested per se, but it takes so long to clear the exhaust out of the tunnel after a loaded eastbound goes through that it limits the daily number of trains to 25 or 30. They could run a dedicated shorthaul intermodal shuttle (e.g. the Quincy-Puget Sound idea that BNSF dissed) through Stevens without too much difficulty, because the eastbound leg of such a shuttle would be running mostly empty, so it wouldn't take much time at all to clear the exhaust out of the tunnel for the next train. Got that straight, Tom?
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