THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 5, 1995 TAG: 9510050397
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 47 lines
Norfolk Southern Corp. has expanded its north-south rail service to better compete with trucks hauling containers on the busy Interstates 95 and 85 corridor.
But the Norfolk-based railroad hasn't added trains to the twice-daily, six-days-a-week service between Atlanta and New York. Instead it has expanded up. It now has the ability to double-stack containers being moved by train.
Norfolk Southern and its partner in the service, Conrail Inc., last month completed a $17 million project to raise overhead clearances under bridges and other obstacles along the route.
Double-stacking is the most efficient way of transporting so-called ``intermodal'' containers by rail. Such containers can be readily transferred between rail cars, ships and trucks.
The two railroads expect the expanded service to help them continue to take business from trucking companies hauling freight between the populous Northeast and the rapidly growing South.
Intermodal service is Norfolk Southern's fastest-growing source of income, accounting for 12 percent of the railroad's nearly $1 billion in revenues in the first half of the year. Revenues from intermodal traffic were up 12 percent to $118.7 million in the first half.
``Manufacturers will be able to take advantage of the higher clearances to transport goods more efficiently,'' said David R. Goode, Norfolk Southern's chairman, president and chief executive.
Double-stacking containers makes the intermodal train price competitive with trucking service. Long-haul carriers such as J.B. Hunt and Yellow Freight are already big customers.
``Shippers serving these markets now have the opportunity to realize the benefits of moving their goods by rail, the safest, most efficient and environmentally sound mode of freight transportation,'' said David M. LeVan, Conrail's president and chief executive.
The trains are switched between Norfolk Southern's railroad serving the South and Midwest and Conrail's railroad serving the Northeast at Hagerstown, Md. The higher clearances will also permit the transfer of multilevel auto carriers at Hagerstown as well. by CNB