Passengers vs. Freight ... It's Not Just a Rail Issue

Those of us who frequent these forums regularly are well-versed in the growing conflict between rail freight and passenger moves. The decision to get freight off the NEC in the wake of the Chase accident is the most prominent example, but the recent push to upgrade a couple of emerging corridor opportunites will likely intensify the issue.

But I think it's worth noting that a similar conflict is slowly developing on our overburdened highway system. When I learned to drive in the mid-1960's, passenger autos weighed about a ton and a half, got 15-20 MPG, and were a lot more crashworthy than they are today. Volkswagens were fairly common by then, but still viewed as the choice of the committed non-conformist (oxymoron?). Today, I get around in a 4-banger Ford Focus that probably weighs less than a ton. And driving definitely is not the pleasure it once was.

Meanwhile, over the same period of time, highway semi-trailer lengths have been increased from 40 to 53 feet, height to 13' 6", and the states which opposed double trailers were brought into line by the tactic of threatening to withhold highway funds. This is not something you want to run into while behind the wheel of a Prius or Scion.

Attempts to segregate commercial motor vehicle traffic can be traced back to the development of the parkway system in the Northeast in the 1940's, but the added development of busways and HOV lanes on the fringes of the most congested cities is evidence that the trend is increasing. And I'm not certain whether the new toll roads springing up on the fringes of several Sunbelt cities allow commercial traffic.

The AAR ran a few ad campaigns against heavy-duty truck traffic prior to 1950, but these apparently didn't draw much of a response. The continuing upward pressure on gasoline prices might generate some sympathy from the public toward further restrictions on trucking, but in reality, the present retail distribution system is closely geared to tying individual outlets to a distribution center that can be served by an overnight "fast turn".

My point being, as in other posts, that the entire surface transportation sytem is no longer well attuned to recent changes in underlying conditions, both economic and societal. All of these pressures are interconnected, and those of us around long enough are going to witness a shift nearly comparable in impact to the emergence of the motor vehicle a century ago.

Amtrak Forum Moderators Note

Moved to the General Discussion Railroad Operations Forum

The Chase,Md. accident happened as a result of a crew's rules violation, not because they were on a freight move. Accidents generally happen as a result of rules violations, which happen to passenger crews just the same as freight crews.

I've worked on the NEC with Acela's doing 150MPH and MBTA Commuter trains doing 80MPH, so I know what I'm talking about. I have had a couple of close calls where the passenger trains have almost made costly mistakes. One night a passenger train (MBTA) was running in the same direction as us, next track over. The engineer assumed that he'd have the signal at the next interlocking because he didn't think he'd be held for a freight. When he got 100 to 150 feet from the signal he saw we were crossing in front of him and he had a stop signal. OOOps, he almost slid by it and went into the side of our train.

Mistakes happen whether it's passenger service or freight so I don't see banning freight from the NEC as doing anything positive.

The most common cause for rules violations is COMPLACENCY, like where I stated above, the pax train thought the freight would be held to give preference to the passenger train, which is usually the case, but not that time.

I think the person who started the thread has a good point here.

Freight and passenger operations on the rails are managed very carefully with fairly substantial safety systems.

Freight and passenger operations on the road... not so much. Rules violations? What rules? Truck drivers do follow the general rules of the road. Many of them. When they aren't behind schedule.

The freight/passenger conflicts are quite severe on roads already. Pileups with jackknifing tractor-trailers and wrecked cars strewn around are common enough that we barely even pay attention to them any more, unless someone gets killed.

The only really effective remedy is getting the long-distance trucks off the roads, which seems to mean more freight rail and more intermodal terminals (and possibly more barges in some well-water-connected areas).

Another thing that is a major inconvenience is sending 53' trailers out to make local deliveries. As much as I dislike trucks I have to feel sorry for the drivers at times - they give them a box the size of the Queen Mary and expect them to back it into some narrow alley or a dock which faces a narrow street, thereby tying up traffic for blocks.

On our railroad we have one crossing which has the flashers on one side busted about two or three times a year by long trucks trying to squeeze in or out of a small road. And the trucking industry wants to allow LONGER trucks? If it was up to me I'd limit anything off the interstates to a 40 foot box.

somewhat ironic here , that long distance trucks , which one business off rail for their door to door service , are now going depot to depot , with the goods transferred to smaller trucks for local delivery . but everything is on alot smaller scale here .
2 key things need to be in place , standard size containers , and good container transfer system s. then the intermodal can operate across the modes .

One other suprising trend of which I've recently become aware is the use of package carriers (UPS, FedEx, DHL, et. al.) for local delivery; in other words, the shipper of high-value merchandise who sells in modest quantiites will send a truckload of merchandise to the regional hub of the package carrier, who then performs breakbulk and delivery. Since the package carriers specialize in overnight sorting, there's less warehousing or inventory-carrying cost.

Point being, as with the increasing practice of overnight restocking of the grocery and pharmacy retailers, the object is to keep the goods either in motion, or on the retailer's shelf. This is, unfortunately, not a method to which rail carriage is well-suited at the present time, but there's always room for innovation.

I rember when i worked for Wegmans everything came to the warehoue by Truck in 48ft trailers and or by plane. Nothing came in by rail. Althow some older photos going back to the start of the company show an old time Reefer somewhat hidden in the back ground. They would ship everything from the ware house to the stores in 48ft trailers each truck hits 2 stores meaning that half the trailer gos to one store while the outher half to anouther. Half the load comes in from Rochester, NY and the outher half from Potsdam, PA meaning 2 trucks hit the storebetween 7:00p.m. and 9:00p.m. followed by 2-3 more between 9p.m. and 7a.m.

I've worked with several grocers as a motor dispatcher. The usual rationale for this was that different prodcucts required different handling, and were thus assigned to different warehouses. The usual breakdown was (1) general dry grocery, (2) produce and/or frozen food, and (3) non-food (drug store items and the like, which could easily be stolen and re-sold).

Wakefern/Shop-Rirte, to cite an example, dispatches most of their grocery traffic from a warehouse near Allentown, the non-food from another near New Brunswick, NJ, and the cold-storage items from at least four different locations, two of which are public warehouses.

What has occurred to me is the possibility of "railing" the freight for several stores to a ramp nearby, then allowing a few local drivers to perform the delivery. But this would require much tighter time constraints than are currently feasible, I believe.

2nd trick op wrote:I've worked with several grocers as a motor dispatcher. The usual rationale for this was that different prodcucts required different handling, and were thus assigned to different warehouses. The usual breakdown was (1) general dry grocery, (2) produce and/or frozen food, and (3) non-food (drug store items and the like, which could easily be stolen and re-sold).

Wakefern/Shop-Rirte, to cite an example, dispatches most of their grocery traffic from a warehouse near Allentown, the non-food from another near New Brunswick, NJ, and the cold-storage items from at least four different locations, two of which are public warehouses.

What has occurred to me is the possibility of "railing" the freight for several stores to a ramp nearby, then allowing a few local drivers to perform the delivery. But this would require much tighter time constraints than are currently feasible, I believe.

What Wegmans is doing is 2 trucks with with general dry grocery came from 2 diffrent ware houses. The Rochester ware house has Union Drivers and the Potsdam, PA ware House dose not. One of each truck makes its stop to drop half a load at one of 2 stores. This is also done with Bread Racks which one truck will hit 3 or 4 stores and drop over-flow. A 4th truck would come in and drop Frozen same thing truck hits 2 stores then Meat, Deli, & Dairy Truck come in on 1 truck this would be a whole trailer on occation it can exstend to 2 trucks depending the season and hoildays. Anouther truck might come in and drop more over-flow product and maybe take the Salvage trailer which would be skids, bottles, and outher things going back to the ware house.