was tasked with overseeing the development of 70 projects,
36 of them freight-specific. It is a work very much in
progress, yet as Thompson tells DC VELOCITY Senior Editor
Mark B. Solomon in the following interview, much progress
has been made.
QIt has been 10 years since CREATE’s launch. Can you quantify the progress that’s been made in reducing
the amount of time to traverse Chicagoland?
A The railroads have seen about a 30-percent reduction in cross-town transit times. In 2003, it was taking
trains just under 43 hours to move through the Chicago terminal. In 2012, trains were moving through the terminal in
32 hours. The Chicago terminal is ringed by automatic
equipment identification (AEI) readers that enable us to
accurately measure performance. Each railcar in North
America has an AEI tag on it. By using data from the AEI
readers, the railroads are able to receive the real dates and
times a car entered and departed the terminal.
QHave there been any forecasts of savings that would accrue to shippers by “unclogging the drain”?
A Individual shippers have not notified us of specific savings or efficiencies. But we know businesses are
managing inventory better than ever before. The goods held
in railcars are part of their production or finished-goods
inventory. Chicago is a very important link in the transportation chain. It makes sense that if the time it takes to
move a shipment is reduced by 11 hours, there is added
value for the shippers.
QWhat is CREATE’s goal for reducing transit times through Chicago?
A This is really a function of future traffic increases. The Chicago terminal was on a path to gridlock (0 mph)
between 2020 and 2030 based on expected traffic growth if
nothing was done. While speed and time are very important, the critical item is volume and carloads through the
terminal, especially as traffic continues to increase.
QCREATE’s existence has coincided with the “railroad renaissance” that began around 2004, and, in particular, the strong growth of intermodal demand. Did the program anticipate the dramatically brightening fortunes of
the industry, and have increased traffic flows complicated
your work?
A Many in the industry have seen this coming for a while. In 1999, there were predictions of gridlock by
2030. Some early terminal modeling was forecasting gridlock conditions as early as 2020.
The Western Avenue corridor [one of four rail corridors
running through the Chicago region] sees a tremendous
amount of intermodal traffic. Some is destined for Chicago,
some originates in Chicago, and some passes through
Chicago. As the Western Avenue improvements are completed, the rails’ intermodal product will move with greater
reliability through the terminal. The CREATE program
supports both domestic and international intermodal
growth.
The industry has not changed its forecasts about future
gridlock. In fact, the increase in fuel costs is driving more
demand for rail services than perhaps many had earlier
projected.
QIncreasingly, intermodal equipment is being ground- ed and loaded in urban areas. Given intermodal’s
growth and Chicago’s pivotal position in the country’s rail
axis, does the positioning of containers make your task
more difficult?
A The CREATE program effectively supports the logic the railroads are using for handling the intermodal
product. While CREATE is not building upgrades inside
any intermodal yards or terminals, it is improving access to
some intermodal yards and between many. In addition, the
railroads in recent years have invested over $3 billion in
infrastructure improvements in the Chicago region that are
not part of CREATE. The idea is to get the train with the
containers to the location where they are loaded or
unloaded.
QWhat are the major challenges still facing railroads in unclogging the region?
A The major challenge is to obtain the needed funding to finish the remaining projects in the face of continued traffic growth. It is important to remember that CREATE is not just about freight. It is also about improving
intercity and commuter passenger rail service, and reducing
road congestion. The railroads have agreed that passenger
trains will have top priority for movements. This is known
as the “Chicago Protocol.” The protocol results in a shutdown of much of the Chicago-area mainline freight operations Monday through Friday between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m.
