Western Railroad Discussion > BNSF issues a Embargo of Carload Freight to California

BNSF has filed a notice that it will begin embargoing most carload freight bound for points in California beginning June 27th through July 31st. Exemptions will be granted on a case by casse basis using permits. More details are available here https://www.bnsf.com/news-media/customer-notifications/notification.page?notId=limited-embargo-of-certain-shipments-destined-for-california

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/24/22 00:12 by SOO6617.

So fixing a washout on the southern Transcon will increase capacity??!  No, it won't.

Meanwhile their trackage rights over Donner Pass and the ex-D&RGW are lightly used, and there is TONS of capacity on those lines.

Railroad management is really, really becoming bad.  Incompetent, really.  This is what happens when you don't PROMOTE railroaders into management--you get college bookworms with no "on the ground" knowledge of what to do to keep things moving.

Just amazing.

Next week, we'll hear that the CEO's grandmother sneezed, causing grief, and "thus we need to constrain our shipping base to maintain velocity!"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/24/22 00:30 by coach.

If it absolutely, positively has to get there...

Who ya gonna call?

Posted from Android

They're blaming the weather? Unbelievable.

So the 16K monster intermodal trains, you know, the ones that plug up the railroad and prevent it from being "fluid", and get broken in to constantly causing service interruptions, will continue unrestricted?

This is right out of the "You can't make this s**t up" department. Place is run by idiots.

I'm not sure how the BNSF release which states "This limited embargo will impact automotive shipments as well as specific agricultural and industrial commodities" becomes "most carload freight" as posted in TO?   Naturally,  we all know what will happen.....but...



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/24/22 07:41 by BurtNorton.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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> If it absolutely, positively has to get there...
>
> Who ya gonna call?
>

A truck.

As I was told by headquarters in the Frisco Northern days: "Don't these shippers know we have a railroad to run? We can't be rnning trains just because they want to ship something."

(That's what the man said; he said that.)

TAW



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/25/22 07:56 by TAW.

trainjunkie Wrote:
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> Place is run by idiots.

That would be an improvement.

TAW

Beating up employess is more important than running the railroad.    Some employee hating moron at the top has dug his heals in. 
And yes, tell the pr ppl to put out some bulletin thats a big lie.
Where is Mayor Pete?  Where is Warren Buffet?     Just more results of the whole american greed thing.  

rantoul Wrote:
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> Reads as though there is no place to put freight
> delivered to Southern California.  Getting there
> not the issue.  Note that intermodal is not
> included.  weird.

That's because intermodal is more competitive (can truck those trailers).  Most of this carload traffic is probably captive to the BNSF, they may not have much in the way of other choices to transport their goods, so BNSF can abuse them.  Main reason carload traffic has disappeared so much from the rails, extremely bad service (even though carload freight is often more profitable - must be that railroad math again).

Maybe it's time to bring back Matt Rose? Or ANYBODY who has railroading in their blood!

Bruce

It is interesting that autos are included in this.  We are going into the traditional slow down of auto shipments, for model year change overs.  With the reduced output of the current models due to the chip shortage, one would think there would be plenty of capacity to handle the remaining loads.

wyeth Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> rantoul Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Reads as though there is no place to put
> freight
> > delivered to Southern California.  Getting
> there
> > not the issue.  Note that intermodal is not
> > included.  weird.
>
> That's because intermodal is more competitive (can
> truck those trailers). 

Not in today’s market. There is no spare capacity to start trucking even 1% of containers normally moved by rail.

I would proffer that intermodal has its own infrastructure (yards) to sort/load/unload. And intermodals are either direct or mainline set-outs. They don’t require sorting and placement by a Local. Whereas manifest freight yards are getting congested and crew shortages are preventing timely placements, thus clogging yards wven more.

Hell put another engine on those trains so they can roll at track speed.

I'm gonna go out in a limb and say crew issues in California are having a impact on switching and putting trains away. I bet stuff is pulling up because of it. But hey I'm sure they will find away to improve the lifestyle for TY&E and make things better...

Pacific5th Wrote:
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> I'm gonna go out in a limb and say crew issues in
> California are having a impact on switching and
> putting trains away. I bet stuff is pulling up
> because of it. But hey I'm sure they will find
> away to improve the lifestyle for TY&E and make
> things better...

There is probably an army of expensive suit, expensive briefcase folks wandering about DC like Fuller Brush men trying to convince congresscritters to bring back16 hours, or better yet, eliminate Hours Of Service regulations altogether.

TAW



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/25/22 08:15 by TAW.

Ghostbusters?


Lackawanna484 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If it absolutely, positively has to get there...
>
> Who ya gonna call?
>
> Posted from Android

Jerry Martin
Los Angeles, CA
Central Coast Railroad Festival

An outsider might view this as a sign that the railroad has more traffic than they can handle but when someone who has some idea of what's going on
starts looking at individual terminals it's a whole different story. When you need a van to recrew most of your trains because they're stopped in a siding
40 miles away and that's happened because your yard is stuffed full of DOL trains you get the feeling you might need more crews. Hey, let's just send
up enough smoke to cover up the fire.

Out 

TAW Wrote:
> There is probably an army of expensive suit,
> expensive briefcase folks wandering about DC like
> Fuller Brush men trying to convince
> congresscritters to bring back16 hours, or better
> yet, eliminate Hours Of Servive regulations
> altogether.
>
> TAW

Why would Democrats do that, before a mid term election?  Biden is mister union and mister railroad, too.   And they are already in the hot seat with the STB on service issues.    To me this is all about crews not being there after we came out of the lockdowns/restrictions, and their own terrible policy to deal with that in response.   

Thank god this is happening at a time when the regulators aren't really scrutinizing railroad operations...

Oh, wait.........



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/24/22 14:32 by MC6853.

More on this from Bill Stephens at Trains, adding in eastbound issues.

https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/bnsf-aims-to-prevent-a-fourth-of-july-meltdown-by-limiting-traffic-bound-for-california/

"As of this week, 28 trains bound for Chicago terminals were staged across the Southern Transcon. Over the next two weeks, BNSF will begin limiting the number of intermodal trains originating in California that are destined to Logistics Park Chicago."