(The following article by Gregory Richards was posted on the Virginian-Pilot website on July 6.)
NORFOLK, Va. — Federal regulators are asking Norfolk Southern Corp. and the nation’s other big freight railroads to provide their plans for handling the annual flood of commerce known as the “peak season.”
Stretching from mid summer through the fall, peak season is when retailers import their holiday wares. It also is when the nation’s freight transportation system typically handles its highest volumes.
W. Douglas Buttrey, chairman of the Surface Transportation Board, made the request in a letter sent to the railroads last week. The “heightened focus” comes as the railroads are already exhibiting signs of congestion and facing continued growth in traffic, including a forecasted record agricultural harvest later this year, Buttrey wrote.
The service plans of Norfolk-based Norfolk Southern and the other railroads will enable better planning by both railroad customers and the board, which oversees rail industry regulation.
“This will contribute to the Board’s confidence level that appropriate planning is being done to ensure that spikes in rail traffic demand that are expected for the remainder of the year can be handled as efficiently as possible,” Buttrey wrote.
He requested responses by July 17 for both the biggest railroads and also from the association representing the country’s short line and regional railroads. It is the third consecutive year the board has requested such information.
Norfolk Southern spokesman Robin Chapman said he couldn’t comment on the railroad’s plans for the coming peak season, including how much extra freight is expected, because the response to the board was still being prepared.
But Chapman said the response will be similar to what was provided last year. That response mentioned buying more locomotives, hiring more train crews and improving and expanding rail lines.
This year, Norfolk Southern expects to spend about $1.2 billion on capital improvements, such as purchasing locomotives and rail cars, in addition to hiring about 1,800 employees. Collectively, the largest U.S. railroads will spend $8.3 billion in 2006 on infrastructure, up 21 percent from last year, according to the Association of American Railroads.
With such investments being made by the railroads, they should be able to move all the cargo this year that needs to be moved, said association spokesman Tom White.
The concept of a peak season is fading away, White said, as shippers try to spread their cargo throughout the year to avoid transportation gridlock. The nation’s railroads already are carrying record freight volumes.
“Being in the high demand period that we’re in, it has been almost like a peak season that extends over 12 months,” said Gary Sease, spokesman for Jacksonville, Fla.-based CSX Corp., which owns the other large Eastern railroad, besides Norfolk Southern.