PBMcGinnis wrote: ↑Thu Aug 27, 2020 7:42 am
There are probably restrictions in the Pan Am Southern agreement about running intermodal to the Midwest from Ayer and Waterville. It would protect the NS and their part of the investment. The NJ lane for the water was not part of the restrictions. When trucking capacity grew and rates collapsed again out of New England in 2019, it killed the intermodal move from Waterville to northern New Jersey.
The main reason the Horse did not want to do it is that there is no traffic inbound going that far north into Maine. The Walmart DC is Lewiston-Auburn is pretty much the largest inbound destination for 53' domestic intermodal boxes. It is easier to just dray from Ayer or Worcester rather than dray back down from Waterville. The Horse prefers to run their intermodal trains as close to 100% capacity in both directions.
That doesn’t make a lot of sense considering the volumes and services are driven by the IMCs, with the only real RR boxes being the EMP pool that they work with 3PLs and brokers. Also the Johnny B boys told me they’ve been pushing for Waterville to no avail, remember they could route both NS and CSX, the weak link I was told was PAR. The opportunity isn’t just to route existing 53’ inbound boxes (there is a decent bit by the way) but highway to rail conversions. Walmart is one of the biggest opportunities for sure but Hannaford, Shaw’s, and other retailers have DCs as well.
I asked NS about the inbound to outbound ratio too, it’s not 100% as you mention, they repo a lot of empties west out of New England (probably their EMP box pool, not sure about Hunt). But they do have a very hands off approach in the PAS marketplace “it just goes” in their mind. Albany was the real breadwinner for them to compete with CSX