(The following story by Jaime Guillet appeared on the New Orleans City Business website on April 21.)
NEW ORLEANS — The Port of New Orleans is trying to sell its nationwide railroad access to attract containerized cargo shippers, but five of the six major rail lines aren’t buying.
Only Canadian National Railway uses the Napoleon Avenue Intermodal Yard, the Port’s facility where trains and trucks load and unload cargo. The yard has been operating since January, and LaGrange wants the other five major freight railroads — CSX, Union Pacific, Burlington Northern Santa Fe, Norfolk Southern and Kansas City Southern — to start shipping cargo from the Napoleon yard.
Some rail lines say their container volume in the New Orleans area does not warrant increasing rail service or using the Napoleon Avenue Intermodal Yard.
“Our volumes just don’t justify us having another intermodal facility,” said Suann Lundsberg, a Burlington Northern Santa Fe spokeswoman.
Burlington, based in Fort Worth, Texas, moves cargo across the Western United States but primarily from Port of Long Beach, Calif., to Chicago. Its New Orleans-area intermodal yard is in Bridge City where it moves about 25,000 containers annually. Its most active yard in Los Angeles moves 1.3 million containers a year.
It is a similar story for Omaha, Neb.-based Union Pacific. Instead of using the Napoleon yard, Union Pacific has its own intermodal facility in Avondale where containers are put on the rail. James Barnes, a Union Pacific spokesman, said the company moves fewer than 10 containers a day through the port.
“We have no plans to add additional business to New Orleans,” Barnes said. “We do feel the Port of New Orleans is doing the right thing in expanding Napoleon Avenue. It makes us aware of different opportunities and alternatives that are available and can make decisions based on the continuing needs of our customers.”
Many rail lines that used to move more containers in New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina spread resources to ports around the country and have not returned service to pre-storm levels, said Robert Landry, port marketing director.
Kansas City Southern Railway’s rail facility on Airline Drive transports plastics and coffee that is trucked from the port, loaded onto rail and moved to points on the KCSR system. KCSR is still rebuilding, upgrading and adding more tracks at its New Orleans yard to handle more business, said Doniele Kane, a KCSR spokeswoman.
“More business is expected to develop over the long term and KCSR’s capital investments will reflect that growth,” said Kane. “While KCSR does not currently have regular intermodal train service directly to and from the port, it is working with steamship lines and domestic customers to generate interest in moving products through the port, and with that, building the necessary traffic density to establish regular train service.”
For Canadian National, which uses the Napoleon intermodal yard, business is good, said Mark Lerner, CN assistant vice president of intermodal sales.
“The service we offer there is a daily service (and) it’s probably the fastest and strongest service we have,” Lerner said. “If we pick up a load in New Orleans, we will be able to deliver it to Chicago by the second morning, same as a truck and just as reliable. That’s unique in the industry.”
CN’s rail service crosses the United States north to south and branches into Canada. Its post-Katrina volume has not only rebounded but surpassed what it was before the storm. It’s container volume rose 40 percent in 2007 over 2006. Specific figures were not available.
Port officials are using CN’s success to market to shippers.
“We’re happily shipping containers brought to the Port of New Orleans to the middle of the country, not only very quickly but very efficiently,” Landry said. “Eventually (the Napoleon yard) will have broader appeal but right now that Midwest corridor is what we’re selling very hard.”
As President Bush and leaders from Canada and Mexico descend on New Orleans today for the start of the North American Leaders’ Summit, Port of New Orleans officials will hold the official grand opening of the Napoleon Avenue Intermodal Yard.
Port executives hope the spotlight on trade will help market the location for efficient container cargo movement by rail and attract more major rail lines to Napoleon Avenue.
With the global trade trend toward container cargo, the port is breaking away from its history of handling break bulk cargo, commodities such as steel and copper that are shipped on pallets instead of in containers.
“With six of the nation’s seven Class I railroads intersecting at the Port of New Orleans, we are truly America’s premier trans-shipment hub,” said Gary LaGrange, Port of New Orleans president and CEO. “This new service represents an efficient way to connect the water and rail transportation networks that will benefit shippers all over the continent.”