Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 17, 1994 TAG: 9411170083
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOURNAl OF COMMERCE
DATELINE: SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS LENGTH: Medium
Many now wish they had kept some of it.
For the first time in nearly two decades, American railroads face the challenge of carrying a rising volume of freight. But the extra traffic has overburdened their lines, rail executives told shippers at the National Industrial Transportation League's annual meeting this week.
After the 1980 passage of the Staggers Act, railroads emerged from the dark, money-losing 1970s into the harsh light of open competition. They adapted so well that they're now setting records for carloads.
Every 3.8 seconds, a truck trailer is taken off the highways and placed on the rails, said Henry D. Watts, executive vice president of marketing at Norfolk Southern Corp.
Today, two-thirds of finished automobiles are shipped to dealers by train. Railroads haul 80 percent of all traffic in certain intermodal lanes, he said.
However, faced with increased traffic and burdened tracks, railroads now are dusting off old route maps that became obsolete when they either sold or abandoned unprofitable branch lines. Desperate for added capacity, carriers are calculating the costs of refurbishing these lines.
In many instances, railroads are repairing dormant lines where rails have aged but otherwise remain intact. But in rare cases, it means relaying track that was torn up years ago when many double-tracked routes were made single.
But double or triple tracking, or even constructing a new line, should be the last resort, because it costs about $1 million a mile, said Steven F. Marlier, senior vice president and chief marketing officer at Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway.
Looking to avoid the expense of laying new track, Santa Fe boosted capacity on some jammed lines by increasing train speeds, while maintaining safety by resignaling, Marlier said.
But not all capacity problems can be solved with new track or faster trains.
Narrow rights of way hinder laying new track in some areas, and higher speeds are thwarted by commuter lines that share freight tracks in many metropolitan regions, said Gordon H. Kuhn, senior vice president of core services at Consolidated Rail Corp.
Attempts by some carriers to improve train flow can be blocked by politics. Santa Fe wanted to relocate an auto terminal in the Los Angeles area on 40 acres of land it wanted to buy from an aerospace company, but local officials prevented the sale. ``They said they didn't want trucks from the terminal running in their city,'' Marlier said.
``People seem not to like having trains passing through their towns at night,'' said Ronald A. Rittenmeyer, executive vice president of Burlington Northern Railroad's Merchandise Business Group.
by CNB