(The Florida Times-Union posted the following story by Walter C. Jones on its website on September 30.)
ATLANTA — The sound of trains was unusually absent one morning last this week along two tracks that normally carry many of the 2 million rail cars passing through the city each year.
Traffic was halted for about 20 minutes while the governor received an award and made a speech. Before he’d stepped from the dais, trains resumed rumbling through.
What could be worth such a pause?
Two of the nation’s largest railroads were patting themselves on the back and letting the governor collect the prize as the Association of American Railroads celebrated the return of railroads as a major player in the transportation of consumer goods. They marked the occasion by designating the country’s first “freight rail smart zone.” Presumably, more cities will get the designation.
Atlanta claims the title because more than 60 percent of the freight traveling through by rail is carried on intermodal trains — cars carrying containers that leapfrog from ships to trains to trucks without the need to unload their contents. Having two containerized seaports, an extensive rail network and a cluster of intersecting Interstate Highways in Georgia make Atlanta ideal for intermodal shipping and one of the five largest distribution points in the country.
Jacksonville-based CSX Transportation and Richmond-based Norfolk Southern Corp. have each constructed multimillion-dollar intermodal rail yards near Atlanta to transfer the containers piggybacking on railcars to tractor-trailer trucks for local deliveries.
And consumer goods now make up more of rail’s business than such bulky stables as coal, grain or minerals. UPS, headquartered in Atlanta, is suddenly the nation’s single largest rail customer.
Now, 41 percent of all freight in the U.S. goes by rail, a percentage that has steadily grown in recent years as railroads have used techniques like intermodal trains to take business away from truck lines.
“We used to think of bulk items. We used to think of coal, of grain on trains,” said Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue. “But now all of our consumer goods can move by rail.”
The whole region benefits from Atlanta’s rail hub because shippers along the network get their cargo moved more efficiently, said Gary Sease, spokesman for Jacksonville-based CSX.
“For example, merchandise for Christmas sales is already moving in containers by ship from manufacturers in Asia,” he said. “And when it gets to the department stores, the guys unloading the truck have no idea that it crossed the country from the Los Angeles port by rail.”
Georgia’s port, with a newly expanded intermodal transfer facility, adds to the whole scheme, said David Goode, Norfolk Southern CEO.
“I’m happy to report, business seems to be booming between Savannah and Atlanta and the rest of the Southeast,” he said.
Sease admits that railroads have only recently begun to hustle for finished-goods cargo.
“It used to be that the railroad man would come and tell you what we were going to do,” he said. “People didn’t like being told to.”
A new focus on flexibility, published train schedules and improved efficiency have made the difference.
For example, Norfolk Southern demonstrated one of its three mobile simulators at Wednesday’s ceremony. It uses them so engineers and other employees can get the feel of driving a train under different conditions. They’re needed for training and continuing education to improve operating efficiency and because railroads have halved the size of train crews.
Apprentice engineers used to spend years as part of a four-member crew, learning the ropes from the veterans. But with only two people crewing a 100-car train, engineers today need to learn in classrooms and simulators, like those housed in McDonough, Ga., for Norfolk Southern and in Waycross, Ga., for CSX.
Intermodal trains have another, lesser-known benefit: relieving traffic congestion. Railroad executives figure each railcar takes the place of three trucks, meaning that the trains through Atlanta keep 6 million trucks off the city’s already clogged roads.
“I’m awed by the environmental benefits,” Perdue said.
Perdue is looking to the railroads to get cars off the roads as well. He’s negotiating with them for use of their lines between Athens and Atlanta and Macon and Atlanta for a state-run passenger rail service.
He said Wednesday that negotiations are ongoing but there were no breakthroughs yet.
At the same time, the railroads want Georgia and other states to remove the tax they levy on diesel fuel locomotives consume. They’re also fighting efforts in Washington to re-regulate the industry after 23 years of unrestricted ability to set rates, routes and schedules.
The railroads have just learned how to cope with deregulation, executives say. Innovation, like intermodal shipping, is one way. And none of them want to go back.