Tag Archives: autos

A380’s and Trans-Atlantic Capacity

A total of 408 daily flights are scheduled between the U.S. and Europe this summer, said Craig Jenks, president of Airline/Aircraft Projects. After years of declining as airlines switched to smaller planes, the average number of seats on those flights will rise to 255.8 seats per departure this summer compared to 252.4 last summer.

The super-jumbo Airbus A380, now flown by both Air France and Lufthansa to the U.S., accounts for most of the per-departure seat increase.

(Via The Middle Seat Terminal.)

USPS: A Failed Transportation System

A very thorough article in Businessweek on the imminent collapse of the United States Postal Service.

“The postal service is already carrying more junk than first class,” says postal consultant Campbell. “Pretty soon it’s going to be a government-run advertising mail delivery service. Does that make any sense? It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Civilians call it junk mail,” Rice says, joking. “We don’t like that term. We call it job security.”

This just doesn’t seem even remotely tenable.

Every day (except Sunday) the USPS has 10’s of thousands of automobiles driving the same routes regardless of mail volume.

Every day (except Sunday) the USPS delivers reams of paper, in the form of junk mail, that people don’t even want.

This is not sustainable. It’s wasteful from both a economic and an environmental standpoint. This is a classic example of the government’s inability to repair itself, and for that matter it’s inability to diagnose itself.

Railroad Fuel Efficiency

From an article on Seeking Alpha I found this particular bit of information remarkable:

According to the Association of American Railroads, U.S. freight railroads averaged 484 ton-miles per gallon in 2010, a 106% improvement over the industry average of 235 ton-miles per gallon in 1980.

106% more efficient in 30 years. That’s outstanding! If only we could capture that kind of development in automobiles.

Intermodal Growth

Interesting article on Reuters regarding the growth of intermodal shipping amongst the railroads. Fuel prices and trucking capacity issues are pushing freight onto the railroads:

“Rising costs on the truckload side because of increasing capacity scarcity, higher fuel prices, highway congestion, the increased (trucking) regulatory environment all help promote conversion from truck to rail,”

This got me thinking a little bit. Why don’t the railroads view themselves as full-on logistics companies like UPS, FedEx, and DHL? These logistics companies are also shipping companies… but they transport goods from start to finish. All three of these logistics companies operate their own trucking companies, airlines, and distribution centers. They have mastered the transportation of goods.

When it comes to intermodal the railroads do heavy lifting, but what if they tried to offer a service to also cover the “last mile” of shipping? BNSF ships a good amount for UPS, JB Hunt, Xtra Intermodal, etc. and lets them handle the “last mile”. Is there no money to be made off that last mile? What efficiencies could be brought to the transportation of freight if a railroad like BNSF purchased JB Hunt and provided integrated “door-to-door” service?

It seems like Union Pacific almost gets it:

“We see a possible 11 million truckloads of opportunity, meaning 11 million truckloads we could potentially convert from highway to Union Pacific,” spokesman Thomas Lange said.

The railroad recently bought 5,000 shipping containers, boosting its fleet 9 percent,

Why stop there? Don’t just buy shipping containers. Buy the tractors and trailers and finish the job? Provide fully integrated logistics. I’m sure they’ve looked at this. What am I missing?

We Need More of This

Burlington Chief Executive Officer Matthew K. Rose is determined to take advantage of the industry’s improved climate and the flexibility he gets by having only one shareholder—Buffett. This year, Rose is boosting capital spending by 31 percent, triple the increase of other major rails. He’s buying about 200 locomotives and building more huge transfer facilities where rail freight containers are switched to and from trucks before and after their transport by train. Rose’s goal: to bolster the second-largest U.S. railroad’s competitiveness relative to long-haul truckers.

via BusinessWeek.

Amtrak’s $100-Million Trains

Fred Frailey did some digging and found some stupefying numbers for the yearly operations of select Amtrak passenger trains.

I’m old enough to not be frightened by big numbers. But I have to admit catching my breath when I saw what it costs Amtrak to operate three of its most popular and endearing trains. We’re talking nine digits.

via Trains Magazine.

I’ve had the opportunity to ride one of these trains, the Southwest Chief. For a nostalgic railfan like myself it was a great time. However, it took over 9 hours to travel from Chicago to Kansas City. This is not the model of efficient transportation. I suppose that’s further exemplified in the numbers Fred dug up… $103-million in costs, $62-million in revenue. There’s a reason the private railroads started dumping passenger service throughout the 1960’s… it was not tenable. Apparently it still isn’t.

Privatized Transportation Works

Dave Talley, superintendent of Norfolk Southern’s Lake Division, wrote a great op-ed in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette.

The freight rail network has been a bright spot in a troubled economy. That’s because freight railroads, unlike trucks, airlines or barges, have been using private capital to invest in the rail network and facilities in northeast Indiana and around the country.

A small caveat here. The railroads do use some federal money through FRA grants that seem to generally be dispersed through state DOT’s. If you look through these grants though, the dollar amounts are a fraction of the capital that the railroads put into their own infrastructure.

All the same, Dave’s point is important. These private companies, the freight railroads, have shown amazing resiliency in the midst of economic problems. They aren’t waiting around for a bailout.

Even through the recession, railroads such as Norfolk Southern steadfastly have stayed committed to providing safe, reliable, efficient and affordable service, employing people in well-paying jobs that support families and communities.

Safe, reliable, efficient, affordable. Can we say these same things about our public transportation and its infrastructure? Not always.

…since 1980, freight rail industry has invested $480 billion to maintain and modernize the nation’s rail network so taxpayers don’t have to.

Looking ahead, these investments are not slowing down. In 2011, freight railroads plan to spend a record $12 billion of their own money on capital expenditures – on things like upgrading tracks, new fuel-efficient locomotives and new intermodal facilities.

Yeah, the $1 million and $5 million grants listed on the federal grants site don’t really touch the figure the railroads are fronting on their own.