by CN9634
The Ayer terminal is really a very obsolete terminal as compared to modern intermodal facilities across the map... in much need of an overhaul at the least much less an 'expansion'.
Railroad Forums
Moderator: MEC407
As noted in our October 7, 2016 Customer Advisory, transit delays of up to 24 hours are expected to trains 22K (Chicago to Ayer) and 23K (Ayer/Albany to Chicago) through Friday, October 28th. These delays are due to congestion resulting from the Pan Am bridge and track work near Athol, MA that was completed earlier this month.
johnpbarlow » Mon Nov 28, 2016 4:11 amNot "acute" fluidity, not "chronic" fluidity, but "clinical" "terminal" fluidity? Is there a Heimlich Maneuver to relieve the Ayer choke-point? The inability to handle even a modicum of traffic up-tick would seem to mean that Fink 1.0 has won.
Last week, NS posted this alert on their Shipping News and Alerts website:
Net: drayers return empty 53' EMP containers to the Sanvel auto unload facility off Willow Rd to improve Hill Yard "terminal fluidity" (a clinical name has finally been given describing Pan Am's chronic challenges to moving freight!).
Teamdriver wrote:'' Never let your containers pile up at RDCs or warehouse (they typically don't go directly to stores) for more than a few days because they'll get 'lost'. Had some before that consignees decided to use as storage units and were moving to an off site yard ''Containers not moving aren't earning revenue... we would have several issues with customers who you drop a load at not releasing an empty because they haven't unloaded another box yet.... or so they would say. Sure, there is demurrage still but its hard to keep track of how long individual boxes have sat somewhere when you cycle through 40 or 50 boxes in a day (1 comes in and 1 goes out should be how it works everytime, no bobtailling unless you're doing box work). Also hard to keep track of boxes when a place has more than one drop yard and continually changes up their practices... that is in a perfect world this stuff never happens. But we live in a far from perfect world... Back to my point, I don't think these EMP boxes are hard parked unless they are being grounded as the chassis is often times much more valuable an asset than the box itself (often times had too many empty boxes, not enough chassis which are easy to damage)
Is there not demurrage charges anymore ? If the consignee is paying, and there is a surplus of boxes , the more the merrier. It's still revenue as opposed to nada if the boxes are gathering dust hard parked.