Can the Rust Belt Infrastructure Cope with the Future Demand for Freight Handling?

As the interchange point between eastern and western rail systems, Chicago is a pivotal part of the national intermodal network. The volume of freight that arrives in the city from shipping on the Great Lakes compounds the pressure on port facilities and bottlenecks here can add significantly to the costs of companies which are relying on these deliveries. The projections for the future of freight are that demand is sure to increase across the American networks with an expected boom in container handling after the Panama Canal project is completed in 2015. This raises questions about the ability of facilities in the rust belt to deal with the expected influx of traffic effectively. While there have been large new developments underway in other port centers, especially along the Gulf Coast and Eastern Seaboard as well as in the Mid-West at Kansas City, the intermodal hub at Chicago has struggled to keep up with the continual growth in demand over the past decade. There have been suggestions that a part of the solution to potential bottlenecks in the freight transport network in Chicago would be to develop alternative hubs in Wisconsin or Michigan1. Other Midwestern states have begun to look at ways to circumvent the need to ship their freight through the traffic jam in Chicago and one project in Indiana is establishing rail lines directly to west coast Canadian ports in an effort to improve delivery times for imported goods2. It is estimated that Chicago bottlenecks can add as much as 30 hours to a rail journey as freight trains make their way in and out of the cargo facilities in the city3. The average rail speed through Chicago’s rail yards is 1.3 mph and the lack of development of freight facilities in the region makes the handing of containers less efficient than the new centers with state of the art, computer controlled systems in place. At the same time freight handling times in many ports will improve as more modern systems come online and freight begins to move more efficiently. This will put immediate stress on the capabilities of Chicago to keep up with the new pace. Volumes of freight are expected to increase by 80% in the coming 20 years, which will certainly put even more pressure on the rust belt transport networks to perform. The failure to invest in this area will see this essential transport center become the weak link in America’s intermodal freight network. References: 1. http://rustwire.com/2013/04/16/are-michigan-and-wisconsin-missing-a-golden-opportunity/ 2. http://www.theindychannel.com/news/local-news/freight-rail-service-expected-to-save-time-to-indy 3. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/08/us/chicago-train-congestion-slows-whole-country.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0