Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 20, 1993 TAG: 9307200084
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Journal of Commerce
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Hopes for a respite from the growing logistical problems of moving cargo were crushed over the weekend as rains continued to hammer the nation's midsection.
Flooding continued to close vital rail lines and intermodal links between the Eastern and Western regions of the country.
Railcars and intermodal equipment - usually recirculated on a regular basis between ports in the West to points in America's heartland - were trapped in staging yards and transfer facilities throughout the Western interior states.
Ocean carriers, which rely on rail equipment to move cargo, were beginning to see equipment shortages. Executives at the carriers expected the problems to worsen.
"We are experiencing railcar supply imbalances," said Jim Barker, director of marketing for OOCL (USA) Inc., the Peasanton, Calif.-based unit of Orient Overseas Container Lines. "We don't expect them to totally correct themselves until September."
The Los Angeles Intermodal Container Transfer Facility, a major train ramp operated by Southern Pacific Lines, reported delays of up to two days.
"We're still waiting for equipment to get back from the East," said Carolynne Born, an SP spokeswoman. "We're about two trains behind. Car supply is adequate now, but we expect shortages by midweek."
"There's been difficulty in restaging some equipment, [refrigerated] and dry equipment," said George Marshall, senior vice president of marketing for Mitsui O.S.K. Lines in Long Beach, Calif. "Information is sketchy at this point."
"We've canceled some trains, but combined them with others," said Ted Prince, executive vice president and chief operating officer for Rail-Bridge Corp., the intermodal transportation unit of Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd. ("K" Line).
"The railroads have been submerged. Some of them are good at getting back to you - some don't. If you leave it to them you might have trouble. So we've been doing it ourselves and proactively rerouting trains. Otherwise sometimes you wouldn't even know where your freight is," Prince said.
Lanny Vaughn, president of GST Corp., an intermodal marketer in Memphis, said there was a particular shortage of cars to handle 53-foot trailers, which can only ride one at a time on 89-foot railcars designed to carry smaller 45-foot units.
Railroads continued to find ways to get to old places Monday, with portions of some busy lines returning to service while other routes continued to be under water.
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway and Burlington Northern Railroad, which each had pieces of a Chicago-Kansas City, Mo., route out of service, patched together a route using parts of each others' lines with Santa Fe taking traffic from Chicago to the rural hamlet of Bucklin, Mo., population 713, where it switched to a BN secondary line into Kansas City.
by CNB