the 2011 rail conference: moving freight and passengers in the 21 st century seaports and freight...

The 2011 Rail Conference:Moving Freight and Passengers

in the 21st Century

Seaports and Freight Rail

Eric D. JohnsonExecutive DirectorWashington Public Ports Association

An Overview of Seaports: Governance

Nearly all of the nations major seaports are publically-owned enterprises The governance model varies:

Division of state Regional city organization Departments of cities Independent local governments

Operations:

Ports build and maintain the transportation infrastructure that enables water-borne commerce to move to and from highway and rail modes: Marine terminal docks Near-dock rail Near-dock roads Shipping channels

Business Models:

Lease land, buildings and equipment to private companies

Occasionally a port operates its own terminals Most ports subsidize these investments in

order to create jobs and regional prosperity

Overview of North America’s Rail Network:

We have competing gateways, especially for Mid-west cargo

Class I RailroadsUS Operations

Railroad U.S. Route Miles

Revenue Ton-Miles (billions)

Operating Revenue ($ millions)

Number of Employees

BNSF Railway (BNSF) 32,140 594 14,124 37,095

Union Pacific Railroad (UP) 32,094 479 14,117 47,117

CSX Corporation (CSX) 21,190 209 8,179 27,752

Norfolk Southern Corporation (NS) 20,623 159 7,969 28,323

Canadian National Rail Service (CN) 6,898 43 1,911 5,857

Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) 3,154 20 699 2,428

Kansas City Southern Railway Company (KCS) 3,076 29 860 2,735

*Association of American Railroads - Railroad Facts 2010 edition

National RailCommodity Flow

Port Related Canadian Commodities

Emerging Themes: Canadian Competition

Emerging Themes: Panama Canal widening (completed in 2014)

Eastern U.S. and Gulf Ports are

Making Strategic Investments for

Competitiveness:

Deeper shipping channelsLarger terminalsInland corridor improvements

Houston

Mobile

New York

Jacksonville

Jasper County Savannah

Charleston

Norfolk

Emerging Themes:

Direct Trans-Atlantic routes through Suez Canal

Asian – especially Chinese – demand for raw materials

Shifting manufacturing trends Southward in Asia Southward in U.S.

AMTRAK

• Passenger trains operateon freight lines in mostcorridors

• Passenger trains usemuch more capacity thanfreight trains due tospeed/schedule requirements

Importance ofRail Yards

• Disassemble and reassemble trains for ultimate destination

• Location where crewsgo on/off duty

• Holding area for trains when destination not ready to receive (staging)

• Locomotive and railcar maintenance

Unit Trains

• Trains of 100 + railcars of single commodity going point to point– Trains lengths up to 8,600 feet– Trend is towards longer trains

• Most efficient operation• Pricing incentives to shippers due to efficiencies• Length of trains demands longer track

configurations at origin/destination and sidings

Emerging Themes:

Scale of investment in key rail corridors leads to multi-state public/private coalitions. Examples: Heartland Corridor (Norfolk Southern)

National Gateway (CSX)

What does it mean?

Our nations seaports exist in a dynamic economy

Many key factors and variables are out of our control

We rely on timely investments from the Class I railroads

Public partnerships with the private sector are more important than ever

Questions?

Eric Johnson, Executive DirectorWashington Public Ports Association

PO Box 1518Olympia, WA 98507

360-943-0760ericj@washingtonports.org