Western Railroad Discussion > Low Water on the Mississippi; reduced capacity at best

News sources today (WA Post, NY Times IIRC) reported that the lowest water in 10 years due to midwest dought has halted traffic near Vicksburg and maybe Memphis.
The Corps is engaged in dredging to get a passable channel opened, but will require smaller barge rafts and less than full loading due to narrower and shallower channels.
Not exactly rail traffic potential directly but may swing some markets to export in the west instead of Gulf ports.
That is if the railroads can find the people and equipment to ramp up service.
One news report lamented that many shippers are struggling with railroad service quality issues without any new traffic to cope with.
Comments?

This exactly. In the cult of Harrison (PBUH) there is no room for growth or taking advantage of new business opportunities. PSR is about stagnation and selling assets for short term gains and then fleeing the smoking hulk.

I really hope I live long enough to see heaps of scorn, ridicule and contempt put upon not only the Carriers but also the “regulatory” agencies that have let this come to pass.

Sadly the corporate spin doctors will convince the public this is all the fault of agreement employees and those good for nothing unions.
Ronnie RayGun would be proud.

Regards

Posted from iPhone

Local Memphis media reporting that barges are running but far less of them.  Those that are have significantly reduced payload to avoid running aground.  The new Viking Cruise ship is delaying operations for awhile.   River forecasted to stay near record low datum into late October at least.   

Drknow Wrote:
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> This exactly. In the cult of Harrison (PBUH)
> there is no room for growth or taking advantage of
> new business opportunities. PSR is about
> stagnation and selling assets for short term gains
> and then fleeing the smoking hulk...
>
> Regards

What happened to the "pivot to growth"?  Still waiting.

mapboy

Drknow Wrote:
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>
> I really hope I live long enough to see heaps of
> scorn, ridicule and contempt put upon not only the
> Carriers but also the “regulatory” agencies
> that have let this come to pass.

Sorry but your wish will go unfulfilled.  As long as the ones making all the money, are also the ones making the rules, no one who matters will ever admit there's a problem.  I'm not sure what the end result of all this is, but I'm betting that it's gonna be pretty ugly.  

Andy

Little dose of reality here.  Shippers use barges because they are cheaper and probably intrinsically more efficient.  So now reailorads should ramp up service until what water levels return and shippers go back.

We don't even know origination and destination facilities for the cargo.  For some of the shipments railraods may not even be a viable alternative in the short term.

Bob

There's a lot of stone, crude, some grain, etc.

You can often see the stone barges pulling into the dock at Fort Madison IA.

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robj Wrote:
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> Little dose of reality here.  Shippers use barges
> because they are cheaper and probably
> intrinsically more efficient.  So now reailorads
> should ramp up service until what water levels
> return and shippers go back.
>
> We don't even know origination and destination
> facilities for the cargo.  For some of the
> shipments railraods may not even be a viable
> alternative in the short term.
>
> Bob

For us in the Upper Midwest, the barge situation is skyrocketing costs for farmers.
Winona, Minnesota a major Twin City District port on the upper Mississippi is 
being forced to load barges to half capacity.  This is causing elevator operators
to increase fees charged to the farmers.  In a conversation with a farmer on 
Wednesday, his profits are being reduced by two dollars per bushel on soy
beans bound for the Gulf.  We talked about rail, he stated that a lack of railcars
is preventing the use of rail to mitigate the issue.  Red Wing, Winona, La Crosse,
Marquette and McGregor all have elevators that could use rail.  
SR2

Are grain cars being stored someplace?  Or is this a case of slow rail operation, slow port loading, slow return of cars, etc?

mapboy Wrote:
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>
> What happened to the "pivot to growth"?  Still
> waiting.
>


Check the nav chart. It's a waypoint on Amtrak's glide path to self-sufficiency.

TAW

robj Wrote:
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> Little dose of reality here.  Shippers use barges
> because they are cheaper and probably
> intrinsically more efficient. 

Not as well known as the highway subsidy to trucks, barges are heavily subsidized. Work I'm doing on shifting from barge to rail on the Lower Snake River (WA) shows that the barges are subsidized 30 Megabucks a year. I dug up a Congressionsl Budget Office report that states that the government subsidizes barges to take traffic from railroads.

Not only is the playing field not level, it is warped.

TAW

The new Shell Energy ethane cracker at Monaca PA is located on the Ohio River. It has direct access to CSX, the river, pipelines, and NS is across the river.  I don't know if NS will seek access to the facility at this point.

I think we all realize the subsidy. However, these are bulk shipments and barges are a bulk method of shipment.

Bob

Posted from Android

robj Wrote:
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> I think we all realize the subsidy. However,
> these are bulk shipments and barges are a bulk
> method of shipment.
>

So are the trains against which the government is competing. In the case of the project I'm working,  to hear the barge folks talk about how essential they are, one would envision the Lower Snake Raiver as being like the Rhine (before it ran out of water) with an endless stream of barges going up and down. Then I did the homework and found that the railroad equivalent was five trains...per week.

TAW

Years ago Forbes magazine had an article on government subsidies to transportation industry. Water borne traffic traffic had the largest subsidy, if I remember correctly, with about 95% of fixed cost covered by various forms of government.
 

millerdc Wrote:
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> Years ago Forbes magazine had an article on
> government subsidies to transportation industry.
> Water borne traffic traffic had the largest
> subsidy, if I remember correctly, with about 95%
> of fixed cost covered by various forms of
> government.
>  

Fixing and updating large barge locks is a very substantial expense.  Not unlike fixing highways that get pounded to hell by overweight trucks, etc

There is 45 of the small covered cars stored here in Ellsworth, KS. These are the 2 hopper cars and I think they are used for hauling the fracking sand. They could be used to haul grain in very easy.  upkpfan

EZ fix. Just build a pipeline from Florida, which has had more than enough water recently, to refill the Mississippi, and then another pipeline to the Colorado River for Arizona and California from the Mississippi to cover that drought problem and all is good! 
What the heck did we do in the past to alleviate these problems?  Or these all new problems only experienced since the "fake" global warming issues? Or maybe, dread the thought, PSR induced transportation shortfalls?
This crap may start keeping me awake at night. ARGGHH! I need a good night's sleep.
Gonut

Gonut1 Wrote:
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> EZ fix. Just build a pipeline from Florida, which
> has had more than enough water recently, to refill
> the Mississippi, and then another pipeline to the
> Colorado River for Arizona and California from the
> Mississippi to cover that drought problem and all
> is good! 
> What the heck did we do in the past to alleviate
> these problems? 

I think the "environmental" groups would have something to say about that.


Or these all new problems only
> experienced since the "fake" global warming
> issues?

Yeah, sure....no comment??!!

Or maybe, dread the thought, PSR induced
> transportation shortfalls?

You think maybe??!!! According to the "experts", ALL is good??!!!

> This crap may start keeping me awake at night.
> ARGGHH! I need a good night's sleep.
> Gonut

I sleep to make this "crap" go away......

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