CSX Invests in Expanding its Intermodal Future
Posted : 07/8/13 7:09
One of the biggest players in the rail freight game in America, CSX has its eye firmly fixed on taking advantage of the contemporary shift from truck to rail. Increasing fuel prices and governmental pressure to significantly reduce carbon emissions has seen many logistics handlers looking for more cost effective ways to move their goods around the country. At the moment the lion’s share of freight is still transported on American roads, but recent redevelopments of the intermodal rail networks are beginning to challenge that supremacy. Looking to the future, CSX understands that as fuel costs continue to rise, there will be a point at which truck transport is no longer cost effective for many types of cargo, and will naturally shift to the less expensive, environmentally-friendlier rail networks.
At the same time, CSX understands that trucks aren’t going to disappear overnight like the dinosaurs, and they have implemented plans to better integrate the use of rail in conjunction with trucks, by investing in the highway to rail infrastructure that makes train transport a viable option for moving freight quickly and efficiently. They have also made moves to increase the capacity of their terminals, to enable them to handle larger volumes of containers as they implement their rail to road strategies. They currently have 1.2 million units in the US intermodal network, and with increases in capacity, CSX is estimating that they can handle as many a 9 million- a significant increase in volume that will deliver a marked improvement in the overall efficiency of freight handling in America.
In support of their program of buying new terminals to expand their network to more cities, CSX has also been investing in upgrading its trains to have double-stacked, cleared lanes, which, in simple terms is just doubling the number of containers on trains by enabling them to be stacked two high. This alone makes a notable increase to their capacity to transport containers, while adding very little to the overall fuel bill for the same trains.
While all of this may seem like just good news there is a downside. Americans are traditionally disinclined to use the rail networks for intermodal transport as businesses in other parts of the world do. Part of the problem is that freight that is sent by road can have an accurately estimated time of arrival at its destination, and there is a perception that entering the intermodal rail network will see cargo being held up in the transfer process. This makes the real challenge facing CSX one of changing perceptions, more than transport methods.