BNSF Railway parks container cars due to weak cargo demand
April 8, 2008 by SwizStick
Filed under Misc Logistics, QuickNews
According to this LA Times article, at least 5% of their fleet is parked between Helena and Great Falls alone:
Seasonal car storage is common, he said, but the number of cars now idle is exceptional.
Most of the parked cars are designed for intermodal transportation, when containers filled with imported goods are taken off vessels at U.S. ports and then transported by train, truck or both to distribution centers around the country.
Last year, intermodal traffic was flat as railroads began to feel the effects of slowing retail orders and the dollar’s decline.
Hmmm. Makes you wonder if the railroads can continue to demand hefty rate increases from the container lines and whether last year’s increases, combined with weakening demand through LA/Long Beach, contributed to the problem. Then again, apparently rail freight traffic increased last year when you exclude intermodal:
Excluding intermodal traffic, rail freight rose 1.7% for the first two months of 2008 compared with the same period a year earlier. Coal was out in front last month with 576,012 carloads, or an increase of 5.7%.
“The railroads have actually performed relatively well when you look at their entire portfolio,” said transportation analyst Todd Fowler of KeyBanc Capital Markets in Cleveland.
Hmmmm……..
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