JB Hunt Worcester vs Ayer

Up until recently, seemed like the vast majority of Hunt trailers coming into New England by rail were going in to Ayer. Lately however, I've noticed a lot more on Worcester bound B&A Trailer trains. Has anyone noticed a drop-off of this business up at Ayer? In fact, I think I've been seeing more Schneider trailers on the B&A too. Wonder if NS/ST is having service problems??

Don't know any specifics... but I did see MOAY the otehr day, it was a plenty big train and was at least 50% JB Hunt.

roberttosh wrote:Up until recently, seemed like the vast majority of Hunt trailers coming into New England by rail were going in to Ayer. Lately however, I've noticed a lot more on Worcester bound B&A Trailer trains. Has anyone noticed a drop-off of this business up at Ayer? In fact, I think I've been seeing more Schneider trailers on the B&A too. Wonder if NS/ST is having service problems??

ST is always having service problems.

roberttosh wrote:Up until recently, seemed like the vast majority of Hunt trailers coming into New England by rail were going in to Ayer. Lately however, I've noticed a lot more on Worcester bound B&A Trailer trains. Has anyone noticed a drop-off of this business up at Ayer? In fact, I think I've been seeing more Schneider trailers on the B&A too. Wonder if NS/ST is having service problems??

Could be that or any number of other things. The ramp at Ayer is an NS ramp, although NS doesn't operate it: a Pan Am subsidiary does(GMX). The schedules, service, and pricing are all NS. The difference between Ayer and Worcester is CSX vs. NS, so if more Hunt is going through Worcester, it could mean they've switched some of their business over from NS for any number of reasons, which could be because of service, or price, or contracts.

I work in the intermodal side of the business, and let me just say this: It mostly has to do with economics.

Hunt, Schneider, Werner, etc. most likely have contracts with all of the major class I's. Depending on the contracts and the linehaul pricing, IMC's (Intermodal Marketing Companies) or the logistics arm of the asset based trucking companies (Bi-Modal carriers) will chose the routing primarily based on cost.

If you're seeing an increase of traffic from GRS to CSX, most likely CSX dropped their rates or are offering a short-term incentive to increase traffic into Worcester.

Keep in mind the intermodal networks as well, you can't ship into or out of Ayer and Worcester from every origin terminal on the CSX, NS, BNSF, or UP network. If you have a steady increase of inbound freight to New England from a point served by the CSX intermodal network, but not the NS, the IMC's and Bi-Modal companies will obviously chose CSX.

Personally, I prefer service on the B&A / CSX over the GRS / NS in Ayer, but that is just me. However, often it is the origin terminal, and economics which is the true determining factor on which end terminal I end up using, rather than service and preference.

Some very good points! I believe that NS/PAR service into Ayer is really more of an East/West based operation, whereas CSXT into Worcester offers service from the Southeast and the Southwest as well as from the West. I remember talking with a CSXI person a ways back and they mentioned that if it was a real time sensitive load, Hunt would usually ship into Worcester, which was a day or so quicker than going in to Ayer.

A check of the NS web site confirms this. Service from Ayer appears to be only to 47th Street in Chicago, at least if I'm reading the schedule correctly.

Hi everyone... my first post on here, Im sure some know me from the yahoo lists. Looks like some good info here...


Unfortunately, Schneider pulled out of Ayer, do no orange trailers! This might explain why more down on the B&A....

Welcome to the board. Thanks for the info, too.

I'm going up to Ayer and watch.J.B. mostly ships paper loads to the midwest on GRS/NS as there in no real hurry.Time sensitive trailers go via Worcester.
Billy Leazer W.F.P.T.

Skullitor wrote:I'm going up to Ayer and watch.J.B. mostly ships paper loads to the midwest on GRS/NS as there in no real hurry.Time sensitive trailers go via Worcester.
Billy Leazer W.F.P.T.

The Hunt traffic used to originate at the Waterville ramp, which is on the NS network(see the NS web site). NS closed the ramp due to logistics problems because couldn't maintain a supply of empty flats, so Hunt drays the loads to Ayer instead. My guess is that it has more to do with a contract with NS than with transit times. I think NS's transit times to the Chicago area are competitive with CSX. Again though, Ayer only has direct service to Chicago. If the destinations were to the south, CSX would probably be quicker.

Not sure what your definition of competitive is, but the NS service from Ayer to Chicago is at least a full day slower than CSXT's product from Worcester. It's single track with lots of curves and hills from Ayer all the way to Cleveland over NS, while CSXT is a high speed, double track water level route all the way from Selkirk to Chicago. No matter what assets the NS throws into that lane, they will always play second fiddle to CSXT. I'm sure that's fine with a lot of customers, but just a few hours can mean all the difference in the world when it comes to Intermodal. If nothing else, I would say that the PAR/NS service is at least now consistent - which for PAR, is saying something!!

Not to mention it takes 10-12 hours to move the pigs from Ayer to Crescent for the NS pickup. The same trip (mileage) wise can be done in half that time on the B&A. And you're right, once the traffics get to the D&H it has to go all the way down south before it can head across to Chicago. CSX has the better route by far as far as NY to Chicago. If the BM (and the D&H for that matter) were maintained like it used to be, it mights cut down on the times though.

newpylong wrote:Not to mention it takes 10-12 hours to move the pigs from Ayer to Crescent for the NS pickup. The same trip (mileage) wise can be done in half that time on the B&A. And you're right, once the traffics get to the D&H it has to go all the way down south before it can head across to Chicago. CSX has the better route by far as far as NY to Chicago. If the BM (and the D&H for that matter) were maintained like it used to be, it mights cut down on the times though.

Conrail, and now CSX, has always had the better route to Chicago since the Erie Lackawanna was dismantled after being absorbed by CR. That's why CSX has more business and the B&M abandoned the Boston intermodal service over 20 years ago. The Ayer service evolved from the CP and Guilford trying to get a foothold in the growing IM market, but they had no chance against CR, which had become a virtual monopoly for IM in and out of New England. It was only because of the NS/CSX spilt that NS, via CP/D&H, could offer through service to Chicago with transit times that were at least comparable to CSX. A healthy IM train departs and arrives from Ayer on a daily basis, and reports I've read say the ST portion of the service has improved. It really doesn't matter if it takes 10 or 12 hours as long as the schedule is consistent. For the shipper, it just means the cut-off time at the gate would be earlier, but if they like the service, and what that means is price and reliability, then they'll use it. IM customers can very easily vote with their feet, unlike captive lineside ones. If they don't like it anymore, the can go somewhere else.

AYMO has been leaving the HILL Yard later lately.After 9pm, and there were Schneider trailers on it.
Skull