Railroads claim congestion shouldn’t be a problem despite record shipping volumes
August 30, 2006 by SwizStick
Filed under 3PL, QuickNews, Seafreight, Supply Chain Management
The railroads are staying positive – so far – in the midst of this year’s peak season shipping period while sticking with their projections for the rest of the year.
The railroad industry had its busiest week in history for intermodal freight — goods that are in trailers or shipping containers — when it moved 251,000 trailers and containers the last week of July, Association of American Railroads spokesman Tom White said.
“And if history tells us anything, it will get busier as we get into October,” he said. “We’re definitely seeing an increase but things are moving through fine. It may not come without any problems, but there aren’t any choke points or log jams or anything like that.”
As it has for the last few years, the Surface Transportation Board in late June requested that railroads detail their plans for the peak shipping season.
The STB began requesting the information after the industry encountered congestion problems in 2003, brought about by factors that included inaccurate freight volume estimates.
The STB resolves railroad rate and service disputes and reviews proposed railroad mergers.
Executives from Union Pacific Corp., Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., CSX Corp., Norfolk Southern Corp. and others told the STB in mid-July that they expect freight volume to remain strong for the remainder of the year and that congestion shouldn’t be an issue.
So far, so good, it seems. While there will always be problems here and there concerning rail freight, peak season or not, I hope that they are right in assuming that congestion will not be a problem this year. However, in light of the fact that they are expecting to handle record volumes throughout the year, not to mention that they had their busiest intermodal week ever during the last week of July, it remains to be seen whether congestion will rear its ugly head in the future. Future capacity and equipment constraints as demand continues to grow will only exacerbate the potential problem.
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