Has anyone noticed more freight trains where you live?

[AllyCat]

We used to hear 3 a day, but now there are about twice that. I'm wondering if rising fuel prices are encouraging people to ship by rail?

[Breeze54]

1. No... I hardly ever hear them except a distant horn blow in the wee hours...

Once in awhile, one delivers to the only manufacturing company in my town but not that often.

[colt equalizer]

2. No, and the obvious problem with rail is a very limited distribution network.

You either have a factory/store/facility near the tracks or you don't and if you don't you have to pay to get it to your facility and eat the delay.

[cornermouse]

4. That's where the trucks come in

in Bush's brave new world. Eventually I think they will probably revert to short hauls from the railroad to store/manufacturer/whatever. You are mistaken in thinking the railroad has limited distribution abilities. Railroad tracks still go through most small towns to pick up grain from elevators for one thing.

[colt equalizer]

15. Your theory clashes with Just In Time manufacturing.

JIT means you don't have an inventory of raw materials or anything sitting in your facility. It arrives as you need it. This means you can drastically cut your overhead. The only way JIT works is with short windows from whence it came to where it is headed. All of America is now geared up and producing using JIT. If JIT ends, watch out for 5% price increases on everything.

[cornermouse]

17. I think you're wrong.

JIT depends heavily on the transportation system which is currently in deep trouble. I think this is more spin.

NPR had a show a while back about why China is such a success; computers being the example that they used. It seems they have all parts under the same roof, quick turn around on shipping the computer out after getting the order (most of the time no later than the day after).

American manufacturing has gone in the opposite direction. Having become believers in sending off less profitable parts to other manufacturers, even other countries and continents, we now have to wait for the parts to be transported to site after receipt of the order and if the item is on backorder from the manufacturer wait even longer resulting in delays and unhappy customers. That's why JIT is a bad theory and doomed to failure.

[colt equalizer]

22. NPR? How many businesses does NPR own?

Doesn't NPR depend on public money to stay in business?

I could be wrong, but it seems to me NPR stands for National Public Radio....

[cornermouse]

23. You don't comprehend well, do you.

hint: observation not a question.

[Selatius]

29. JIT inventory techniques were invented in Japan, and US companies tried to copy them in the 1990s.

It worked in so far as manufacturing and distribution was done in-country, but JIT becomes problematic if you outsource manufacturing of parts to other continents to save on operating/labor costs. JIT inventory techniques aren't doomed to failure. They only failed because JIT wasn't created for companies that out-source work to other countries.

[Leopolds Ghost]

32. In other words, they were created for vertical monopolies

And they are instead being used as heavily subsidized tools to allow the creation of horizontal monopolies

(over all retail in the US.)

At a loss to the taxpayer -- and uneconomic loss of locally owned retail communities.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

36. Colt decided to return to his regular domain...

under a rock.

[Leopolds Ghost]

27. JIT is designed to benefit giants and put the little guy out of business. It depends on cheap oil.

Massive amounts of it to keep your centralized, bureucratized version of retail off the rails, so to speak, with its mobile cohorts of gas-guzzling Chinese made trash putting our communities out of the market. Thanks for defending it. Why don't you defend business unit theory while you're at it? You know, total quality management. It worked so well for the railroads with the knock-on effects of closing "underperforming business units". Business unit theory is another tool that benefits only predatory capitalists on a large scale.

[Leopolds Ghost]

30. Before you respond, ask David Gunn about what business unit theory and JIT did to railroads.

JIT is a massive subsidization of the highway grid and Wal-Mart at the expense of small providers and small retailers and small scale (low entropy) economics. It depends on high-entropy, uneconomic efficiencies of gasoline-fueled infrastructure.

Business unit theory goes hand in hand with JIT. Ironically it's used only by non-predatory corporations. They use it to close down all their loss leaders (things which benefit the community more than the corporate bottom line). The railroads used it to close down all their feeder lines. It was a disastrous decision for them, as Gunn proved. That's why he's one of the most respected men in the RR industry.

Predatory corps use market dominance as a loss leader, i.e. they ignore ordinary marketing restrictions which call for divvying up the auto-oriented mass geographical market among a narrow oligopoly, one 7-11 here means banks will not finance a mom and pop shop a mile away because its in the same auto service area. Which effectively redlines walkable neighborhoods out of existence and bans direct competition among a large pool of suppliers (i.e. traditional capitalism).

Both geographical market research (with its mandated auto-sheds instead of ped-sheds preventing non prime locations from competing) and business unit theory are a perversion of traditional Enlightenment notions of what a free market is.

But banks will finance two starbucks or two CVS across the street from one another at a loss, because they are openly about swamping the market to eliminate the opposition. Traditional marketing "pie" theory and business unit theory is used by oligopolists. Swamping the market using predatory tactics and JIT delivery to put local suppliers and distributors out of business is the tool of monopolists.

[cornermouse]

3. It's been that way for at least two years.

Since Snow joined Bush Inc. Trains are much much longer and more frequent.

[MuseRider]

5. Yes, much more.

I live in the country. There is a farm house across the road and right behind that house are the railroad tracks. I used to hear them about 6 times a day maybe, night time I did not hear them because I sleep too soundly so I don't know about that. We are sometimes getting trains through here one after the other. The other evening we heard 3 in 30 minutes. We have a road crossing just South of us and one just North of us so they are busy blowing their horns.

I have also noticed more piggybacking of the cars. Unless they are pulling coal cars they are almost all filled with double cars, all with the names of foreign companies.

I wish I was seeing less of the double and triple rigs on the highways. I would give up a little more peace and quiet to see that happen.

[texanwitch]

6. I live very close to a railroad yard.

I have noticed more trains coming in, and a lot more trains on the nearby railroad tracks.

[Danger Mouse]

7. Yes. A lot more.

[Stuart G]

8. Yes,

Goods are being transported from the coasts to distribution centers. Goods unloaded at ports need transportation to inland cities. Rail is often the cheapest way. Guess who is importing more goods from Asia than ever before? You only get one guess.

[AllyCat]

26. Hmmm...could it be...Wally World???

[deaniac21]

9. I've noticed a bunch more Amtrac trains.

[hedgehog]

12. Flights out of Newark have been cancelled all week because of thunderstorms.

Imagine if the airlines could dump their passengers straight to a rail car for short hauls in the Norhteast corrider when that happens.

[hedgehog]

10. The rail companies will have to improve their service standards

if they want to keep this business. For thirty years, the complaint I have heard about shipping by rail is that you never know when your shipment will arrive. Another problem is that a rail car holds more than a trailer. We need a smart way to make shipping small loads by rail dependable. Notice that this may add extra handling; load a truck for the rail yard, transfer from truck to rail, at the other end; transfer from rail to truck amd then unload truck.

[Leopolds Ghost]

33. They only care about GIANT bulk customers. That is because we live in a "monopolistic capitalism"

Not a "free market society" where you are free to start your own business and contract fairly with a variety of options to get your goods to market. Another reason I am jaundiced about the supposed capitalist ideal in general.

The automobile culture practically mandates retail as a monopoly industry by expanding the market area of every business putting them in competition on an auto scale only -- requiring separation, noncompetition and cartel protection lending practices by banks which are legalized as "market research".

And if your business is not located on "the strip" where developers dictate who sells, forget it.

[Kali]

11. hell yes - they added a second track through here a couple years ago

sometimes it is like a dang highway with multiple trains going both ways!

[gatorboy]

13. The railway system is doing a heavy marketing campaign on using rail for goods.

[backscatter712]

14. Very much yes.

Shipping by train is indeed more popular now because trains are far more fuel efficient than cars or planes.

It's even been causing problems lately in my old town of Fort Collins - railroad tracks run straight through the middle of town, and there are a couple switchyards in the area, which were only rarely used in the past, but now get heavy use.

As a result, trains frequently block traffic. Not just by passing through crossings, but by STOPPING in the crossings - the switchyard's too short for full length trains, so while they're shuffling train cars, long trains block intersections for up to half an hour at a time, causing traffic to back up for miles, and creating huge headaches.

[cornermouse]

16. Yep.

Overpasses and underpasses at the rr tracks are an added expense that neither the rr or the city wants to pay for.

[raccoon]

18. yes. nt

[carlyhippy]

19. yes...more trains with more full cars

Carly

[skooooo]

20. Back to the future! nt

[SahaleArm]

21. Yes, Railroads are up 20-30% from last summer

http://finance.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=1&chvs=maximized&chdeh=1&chdet=1214510400000&chddm=98923&cmpto=NYSE:UNP;NYSE:CSX;NYSE:NSC&q=NYSE:BNI&">Railroad Stocks

[pitohui]

24. no our rails have been converted to trails EOM

,

[Leopolds Ghost]

31. Yep, we have no rails left north of Lake P'train, how pathetic is that?

No rails from NY to Scranton either.

[ribrepin]

25. I live near the tracks in our town

I don't know if there are more...I don't think so, but the trains are definitely longer.

[Two Americas]

28. seasonal, to some extent

Yes, the last few days I have noticed many more trains. One factor is that as crops start coming in, that causes an increase in rail traffic.

[Thothmes]

34. Here in Newport News

does seem like a lot more coal trains are coming in from the mines in WV.

[backscatter712]

35. I love the smell of global warming in the morning.

At my last job, my office was fairly close to some railroad tracks, and every week, we'd see the coal train delivering about 100 cars of coal to a local power plant.

Just remember. It only takes a week for that power plant to take that entire train of coal and turn it into CO2. And it does a full train every week of the year.

Every coal plant on the planet does this.

Gives you an idea of how much CO2 is getting spewed into the atmosphere across the world.

[Thothmes]

37. All of these 300 cars a day are going overseas, Mostly to

South America,some to Europe.

[Canuckistanian]

38. Yes, and they're all painted U.N. blue

And they're being escorted by unmarked black helicopters.

Probably nothing to worry about.

[krispos42]

39. I live next to a railroad crossing

But the trains seem to carry mostly coal and grain. Lots of trains, though.

[ribrepin]

40. I just saw two engines pulling and one pushing

Must have been 100 cars loaded with coal heading for Canada. I don't know that there are more trains, but they are longer and heavier. We are close enough to feel the vibration. We love sitting out on our back patio and watching the trains heading for Canada.