SWUTC Research Project Description

Title of Project:  The Potential for Improving Rail International Intermodal Services in Texas and the Southwest Region of the United States

Project Number:  473700-00076

Principal Investigator:          
Robert Harrison
(512) 232-3113
P.I. Affiliation:  University of Texas at Austin

Project Monitor:
Dennis Kearns
Senior Legislative Counsel
BNSF
(512) 473-2823

Project Status:  Active

Date Started:  9/1/06

Estimation Completion Date:  8/31/07

Estimated Cost – Current Fiscal:  $57,000

Estimated Cost – Total Planned:  $57,000

Project Summary:
Abstract:               
2006 Asian trade flows on several global transportation corridors other than those that begin at the southern Californian terminals at Los Angeles and Long Beach. For distances greater than 700 miles from the U.S port of entry, double stack rail service is the most cost-effective way to move containers and so rail planning is now seen as contributing to addressing certain highway capacity issues facing state Departments of Transportation. Texas and other south-western state transportation systems contain (a) elements of the Class One rail trans-continental systems serving west coast ports and (b) highway and rail networks carrying NAFTA goods between U. S-Mexico markets. Intermodal traffic has the potential to take trucks off highways over much of the land portion of the longer NAFTA trips so opportunities to enhance this service form a critical part of state transportation planning. Class One railroads are now covering their cost of capital – substantially because of their intermodal operations - and their 2006 plans intend to fund several major programs to raise system capacity. This project will evaluate the opportunity for Texas and the south western states to benefit from these investments, especially in the case of NAFTA traffic which is still dominated by the trucking sector. Opportunities for private-private and private-public investments will be considered.   

Objectives:
There are five interrelated objectives proposed in this study, these are as follows:

  1. Review and evaluate current Class One rail activities in the region and summarize the investment programs of Union Pacific (UP), Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF), and Kansas City Southern (KCS) to identify critical bottleneck alleviations, the potential for private-private and private-public investments, and to examine the potential role of the system to enhance its share of NAFTA trade.
  2. Describe Class One intermodal service in the region.  The study will look at the growth of rail intermodal service, its costs and service structure, and will examine current practices on the rail system serving the southwest.  It will also identify, examine and categorize trends in agents for change.
  3. Evaluate Class One investment plans.  Building on the first objective, the team proposes to interview key rail personnel and those operating in the rail industry to classify different forms of investment proposed by rail companies, highway departments and other transportation planners.  It will include the following:
    1. Private plans proposed by the rail companies.
    2. Public programs proposed to serve and improve rail service, particularly those developed by state Departments of Transportation and Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs), and
    3. Private-private, which would include plans put forward by proponents of Inland Ports, the Trans-Texas Corridor Cintra group and marine deep water ports.
  4. Monitor the proposals offered in other rail planning activities.  Currently, rail relocation and improvements to the rail system are being evaluated by a consulting team sponsored by the Texas Department of Transportation.  They are considering improvements around the cities of Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston – the later set of recommendations is expected at the end of summer 2006.  In addition, there are proposals to re-route the current UP systems from Central Austin; taking advantage of using SH-130 right-of-way to bypass the city and maintain higher average train speeds.  The plethora of rail plans will be examined and a synthesis offered to those most likely to impact NAFTA and Asian trade.
  5. Planning summary.  The team will summarize the findings in a manner that should benefit transportation planners in the southwest region, especially Texas. 

Tasks:

Task 1.  Current rail capacity in the U.S. Southwest.
The team will examine the rail network in the southwest, which includes Texas and Louisiana, but excludes Florida.  It will concentrate on that part of the system that carries Asian trade from Southern Californian ports and which would be effected by the transfer of a part of that trade to both Mexican Pacific ports and to Gulf Coast ports served by routes passing through both the Panama and Suez Canals.  The Mexican intermodal system is currently being developed with the construction of rail ramps at cities that contain critically large manufacturers and the need to service Asian customers and sources. There is every likelihood that Mexican intermodal domestic traffic will grow as a result of the construction of these centers and, as more traffic moves by container, the service should become more efficient and perhaps begin to offer competitive service with trucking companies carrying NAFTA products. 

Task 2.  Rail investment plans.
Evaluating both secondary data and data derived from primary interviews, the project team will attempt to identify, describe, and categorize the range of investment and service improvement plans for the system derived from Task 1.  The plans will include those proposed by the railroad companies, those proposed by state and federal transportation agencies, and finally those proposed by critical beneficiaries such as deep water marine ports.

Task 3.  International containerized trade.
Currently, much of the non-bulk international trade moving on the global transportation system and arriving at North American ports to service U.S locations, whether the ports are in the United States, Canada or Mexico, does so in containerized form.  Texas container forecasts will be developed, which will examine the growth of containerized traffic over the next ten years and this will be compared with the plans derived from Tasks 1 and 2.  In addition to the growth of international containerized traffic, which moves it mostly in forty foot length ISO containers, the recent growth of domestic containerized intermodal traffic, which uses four height, fifty-three foot containers which are six inches wider than the ISO standards.  This has given rise to the development of transloading locations on international corridors where the smaller international containers are emptied and repackaged into larger, more productive containers.  This will also be considered in this task.

Task 4.  Container security.
The tragic events of September 11, 2001 together with the continued belief that the nation will be subjected to further terrorists attacks has put containerization under tremendous scrutiny in the last two years.  Several initiatives have been proposed, including (a) risk analysis based on pre-filed information, (b) the Container Security Initiative (CSI), (c) physical constraints on containers preventing unauthorized access, (d) radio frequency identification (RFID) devices, (e) Geiger counters on terminal equipment, and finally (f) non-invasive systems that provide pictures of the contents to a DHS agent.  It is anticipated that if containerized NAFTA or Asian traffic begins to move to the U.S on Mexican rail routes in higher volumes, new inspection procedures will be developed that could cause additional delays to transit times. This task will evaluate the current state of container security plans and see if there is a likelihood that moving NAFTA or Asian commodities by rail will create higher risk categories being allocated at the U.S land border.

Task 5.  Regional rail consultants and their plans.
This task will evaluate the plans – where they are public – given by the consultants responsible for regional rail planning, particularly any that relate to NAFTA trade.  In addition to the work for the cities of Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston, TxDOT’s Southern Orient railway is also being evaluated and this report should be available for the team to examine.  It is clearly important that recommendations produced by our work recognize the work currently being undertaken by rail consultants in the region so that the study provides coherent recommendations.

Task 6.  Recommendations.
The team will categorize the various findings, both in terms of their timing and the magnitude of their financial investment needs.  Some solutions may be quite minor but have a large beneficial impact on the system, such as extending passing sidings and keeping main lines unblocked by improving terminal access and keeping locomotives within yards.  In making these recommendations, the team will include a more detailed analysis of the proposed lock investments for the Panama Canal and the impact this could have on Texas and Louisiana deep water ports.

Index Terms:
Intermodal Services, Intermodal Transportation, Freight Transportation, Rail (Railroads), Trade Routes, Ports Of Entry, Public Private Partnerships, Texas, Mexico