Sunday, September 21, 2008

Honda Shipping 81% Rail

Interesting. Why don't more car companies ship this high a percentage by rail?
Product Distribution

* An industry-high 81% of automobile were shipped by rail, the most fuel-efficient means of product transportation.

* CO2 emissions from automobile transport were reduced by 5,493 metric tons though the use of more fuel-efficient Auto-Max rail cars.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

so when I was on a tour pf an "autp mixing facility" in Jessup MD some years back, I asked about arrivaleliability of the trainloads of cars. Surprise (not) thus is the Achilles Heel of the whole business. The RRs can't get the trains ANYWHERE on a reliable basis. Parts that are late can't be assembled...

(all very sad for me as a train lover)

crzwdjk said...

Yeah, railroads in the US tend to compete on having low costs per ton-mile, shipping large quantities of heavy things, like coal, that can't be effectively transported any other way. This means big and slow trains, not running on any particular schedule. Given their limited capital resources, most railroads can't afford to build enough infrastructure that lets them also operate faster trains, since they'd need to be able to pass the slower ones. One exception is the ex-ATSF mainline, now operated by BNSF, which was built to a high standard, mostly double track, with frequent passing tracks to allow faster trains to pass slower ones. Not surprisingly, the Amtrak train on this line, the Southwest Chief, is the fastest and most reliable of all the long-distance runs.