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40 DC VELOCITY FEBRUARY 2015 www.dcvelocity.com
as exposed to the rotten weather and
the shale and agricultural booms,
posted an 8.3-percent intermodal
traffic gain over the same period,
he said.
Part of intermodal’s gain came
from truck shippers who switched
because many truck routes were par-
alyzed during the first quarter (even
though the additional demand only
worsened the rail capacity prob-
lems). But as Anthony B. Hatch,
a veteran analyst and consultant,
noted, intermodal shippers stuck
with the service because, as products
of the post-deregulation world, they
better understand and accept the turbu-
lence inherent in a market-driven system.
Intermodal users also cut their providers
slack because they had lived through an
eight-year period leading up to the end
of 2013 when rail reliability and customer
service had strengthened considerably,
Hatch said.
Shippers believe the railroads are serious about getting their act together,
Hatch said. If money is the benchmark
for commitment, then shippers will have
little to fret about. Railroads in 2015 are
expected to make unprecedented investments in capital improvements. BNSF,
which took the hardest hits of any rail last
year, plans to spend a record $6 billion
in 2015 to add power, track, and labor,
all of which will benefit intermodal users.
Hatch, who expects the overall service
picture to brighten as early as the first
half of the year, said shippers would give
railroads the benefit of the doubt at least
until then.
Clair said that despite the problems,
intermodal continues to bring value
where big shippers want it, namely in
longer-haul transport from their factories
to warehouses and distribution centers.
These moves provide a wider window
for hitting delivery commitments and
give a customer’s supply chain a bit more
breathing room, Clair said. Product that
must be expedited direct-to-customer
could be funneled to faster truckload services, he added. Intermodal service is in
better shape than the rails’ traditional carload business, which Clair said remains a
major problem with no clear resolution.
A SHORT LEASH
It would be a leap of faith to interpret
shipper tolerance as infinite patience,
experts said. Even Hatch said that if the
situation doesn’t appreciably improve by
the start of the third quarter, intermodal
users will “be as upset as ‘ag’ shippers are
today.”
The bad winter weather only amplified
problems that have been present for years
and which have not abated. The Chicago
interchange that intersects six of seven
North American Class I railroads remains
a mess of delays, disruptions, and back-
logs. As was often stated during the year
