Last year's proposal for a new passenger rail system in Ohio proved to be a bust. Now, advocates are back with a new version that's bigger, badder, and even more wrong-headed than the last one.
Art van Bodegraven was, among other roles, chief design officer for the DES Leadership Academy. He passed away on June 18, 2017. He will be greatly missed.
We periodically find it useful to remind ourselves that the world of logistics includes—or should—people movement as well as product movement. The two, while independent, share some interests and concerns, and might benefit from a little conceptual cross-pollination. We do not always assume the superiority of European practices, but in this case, their professional logistics perspectives include both goods and persons.
In the U.S., the worlds came together in the heyday of railroads, and rail solutions to people-movement challenges still pop up from time to time. Don't get us wrong. We are freaky for trains and seek out passenger rail alternatives all over Europe, in touristic excursions elsewhere, and whenever caught in the Boston-Washington corridor.
But realistically, passenger rail in the U.S. is a historical curiosity that, over time, has gone from breakthrough technology to a money pit of epic proportions. In the day, railroads made horses and wagon trains obsolete and opened up the West to expansion, with both goods and people moving vast distances relatively quickly and at reasonable cost.
On the people side of the equation, the automobile changed all that, with bus lines handling quantity movement in the days before virtually everyone had access to autos. Over time, over-the-road truck transport eroded rail's dominant position in freight movement. And the railroads' refusal to accept the inevitable led to the deterioration of freight movement and the collapse of passenger service, following a long period of bleeding cash.
Today, bus lines are a near afterthought, and the limited remaining passenger rail service requires billions of dollars in subsidies. But rail freight is making a comeback, thanks to factors of cost and environmental impact, and the rail infrastructure is being rebuilt and expanded. (Limited small bus service is, in fact, serving largely business markets in localized intercity movement, by the way.)
REALLY, ONLY THE SECOND VERSE?
No, not really. There are railroad buffs, environmental activists, Europhiles, and those-who-know-better-than-the-rest-of-us who are promoting one rail solution after another all over the country. We got our tighty-whities in a bunch a year or so ago when a very serious proposal was mounted for a passenger rail system to link Cincinnati, Columbus, and Cleveland, Ohio, with fervent support from the usual suspects, fueled by false hopes and the promise of "free" money from the federal government.
Granted, the headline was seductively attractive. Only later did we learn that 1) travel time would be longer than by highway; 2) the trains would use existing freight rail track infrastructure, with freight trains having the right of way; 3) schedules and elapsed times would not allow day trips (morning departure, evening return); 4) the states and municipalities would need to come up with hundreds of millions of dollars to fund design and construction; 5) ongoing maintenance was unfunded and would fall to the state; 7) speeds would be 25 or 30 percent of the much-hyped "high speed" rate; and 6) travel would cost more than either flying or driving. What a deal! How could we possibly have said no?
The latest flim-flam job is bigger, badder, bolder, and even more wrong-headed than the last one. Apparently traveling in disguise, it originates in Fort Wayne, Ind., as a proposal to link Chicago and Columbus. It would feature intermediate stops in Ohio (Marysville, Kenton, and Lima) and Indiana (Fort Wayne, Warsaw, Plymouth, Valparaiso, and Gary).
As with the earlier scheme, the project is being proposed as a high-speed line, reaching speeds of over 100 miles per hour. Funding has not been secured, or even seriously pursued, with rosy hopes that some combination of federal, state/local, railroad, and private money would provide the expected $1.3 billion needed. When completed, the system would be handed off to a private operator.
THE CYNIC AWAKENS
We may have reached the "Really?" moment. When has any major project been completed at or near the projected cost? What would committing to this program expose us to, down the road and in perpetuity? Who really benefits from passenger rail access—Columbus, Chicago, or the economic powerhouses in between? Plymouth, Ind.? Kenton, Ohio? Say what?
With multiple one-hour flights daily on three major airlines (often at very attractive fares), why is a train with nine intermediate stops a superior solution? How much less expensive, faster, and more flexible would it be than the four-hour trip by car? Have the railroads not had about all the loss they can stomach with the Amtrak solution? Why would they commit to building new infrastructure for passenger service when they're already funding the development of a profitable freight infrastructure?
So far, Northeast Indiana has spent $100,000 on an initial study (with some of the money coming from Columbus). A $2 million environmental study will be required as a prelude to asking the federal government for assistance in funding a $10 million engineering plan. What universe are these people living in? Are the real winners here those conducting studies and the down-the-road private operator that will run the system once others have paid for its creation?
In essence, we, for a variety of reasons, are being pushed to turn back the hands of time and adopt technology and solutions that became outmoded decades ago, based on assumptions that don't apply in our geography, are patently false, and/or no longer contribute to progress. Where might it all end?
Maybe we can save the environment, extend the useful life of the existing highway infrastructure, support organic food production with natural fertilizers, reduce collective stress levels, and enable a manufacturing renaissance by replacing automobiles with Amish buggies powered by single horses.
An administrator has been quoted as saying of the Columbus/Chicago line, "This actually could be profitable." This is usually called "whistling in the dark." Just imagine—investing $1.3 billion and who knows how much more on something that maybe, just maybe, could work.
THE CRUX OF THE MATTER
Here's the real issue. We have no quarrel with passenger rail, per se. We would love to have genuinely useful rail options all over the place. But we struggle with the national approach to the challenge, which consists of hundreds of individual, specific, limited, uncoordinated, and incompatible proposals for bits and pieces of a national system.
If some entity could make an economic case for an integrated national system that would complement present highway and air systems and not either compete with them or provide redundant services, we could get behind that.
Until that day, we cannot see pouring money down a rat hole for someone's pet project. In the logistics of people movement, we do not have the geography or culture that would make sensible use of a German, Dutch, English, French, or other European model. So, replicating one of those, even on a limited basis, is probably not a 21st century solution. And by the way, those systems and underlying infrastructures do virtually nothing for the genuine and serious need for a freight rail infrastructure that will be sustainable well into the future.
States across the Southeast woke up today to find that the immediate weather impacts from Hurricane Helene are done, but the impacts to people, businesses, and the supply chain continue to be a major headache, according to Everstream Analytics.
The primary problem is the collection of massive power outages caused by the storm’s punishing winds and rainfall, now affecting some 2 million customers across the Southeast region of the U.S.
One organization working to rush help to affected regions since the storm hit Florida’s western coast on Thursday night is the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN). As it does after most serious storms, the group continues to marshal donated resources from supply chain service providers in order to store, stage, and deliver help where it’s needed.
Support for recovery efforts is coming from a massive injection of federal aid, since the White House declared states of emergency last week for Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Affected states are also supporting the rush of materials to needed zones by suspending transportation requirement such as certain licensing agreements, fuel taxes, weight restrictions, and hours of service caps, ALAN said.
E-commerce activity remains robust, but a growing number of consumers are reintegrating physical stores into their shopping journeys in 2024, emphasizing the need for retailers to focus on omnichannel business strategies. That’s according to an e-commerce study from Ryder System, Inc., released this week.
Ryder surveyed more than 1,300 consumers for its 2024 E-Commerce Consumer Study and found that 61% of consumers shop in-store “because they enjoy the experience,” a 21% increase compared to results from Ryder’s 2023 survey on the same subject. The current survey also found that 35% shop in-store because they don’t want to wait for online orders in the mail (up 4% from last year), and 15% say they shop in-store to avoid package theft (up 8% from last year).
“Retail and e-commerce continue to evolve,” Jeff Wolpov, Ryder’s senior vice president of e-commerce, said in a statement announcing the survey’s findings. “The emergence of e-commerce and growth of omnichannel fulfillment, particularly over the past four years, has altered consumer expectations and behavior dramatically and will continue to do so as time and technology allow.
“This latest study demonstrates that, while consumers maintain a robust
appetite for e-commerce, they are simultaneously embracing in-person shopping, presenting an impetus for merchants to refine their omnichannel strategies.”
Other findings include:
• Apparel and cosmetics shoppers show growing attraction to buying in-store. When purchasing apparel and cosmetics, shoppers are more inclined to make purchases in a physical location than they were last year, according to Ryder. Forty-one percent of shoppers who buy cosmetics said they prefer to do so either in a brand’s physical retail location or a department/convenience store (+9%). As for apparel shoppers, 54% said they prefer to buy clothing in those same brick-and-mortar locations (+9%).
• More customers prefer returning online purchases in physical stores. Fifty-five percent of shoppers (+15%) now say they would rather return online purchases in-store–the first time since early 2020 the preference to Buy Online Return In-Store (BORIS) has outweighed returning via mail, according to the survey. Forty percent of shoppers said they often make additional purchases when picking up or returning online purchases in-store (+2%).
• Consumers are extremely reliant on mobile devices when shopping in-store. This year’s survey reveals that 77% of consumers search for items on their mobile devices while in a store, Ryder said. Sixty-nine percent said they compare prices with items in nearby stores, 58% check availability at other stores, 31% want to learn more about a product, and 17% want to see other items frequently purchased with a product they’re considering.
Ryder said the findings also underscore the importance of investing in technology solutions that allow companies to provide customers with flexible purchasing options.
“Omnichannel strength is not a fad; it is a strategic necessity for e-commerce and retail businesses to stay competitive and achieve sustainable success in 2024 and beyond,” Wolpov also said. “The findings from this year’s study underscore what we know our customers are experiencing, which is the positive impact of integrating supply chain technology solutions across their sales channels, enabling them to provide their customers with flexible, convenient options to personalize their experience and heighten customer satisfaction.”
Transportation industry veteran Anne Reinke will become president & CEO of trade group the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) at the end of the year, stepping into the position from her previous post leading third party logistics (3PL) trade group the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), both organizations said today.
Meanwhile, TIA today announced that insider Christopher Burroughs would fill Reinke’s shoes as president & CEO. Burroughs has been with TIA for 13 years, most recently as its vice president of Government Affairs for the past six years, during which time he oversaw all legislative and regulatory efforts before Congress and the federal agencies.
Before her four years leading TIA, Reinke spent two years as Deputy Assistant Secretary with the U.S. Department of Transportation and 16 years with CSX Corporation.
Two European companies are among the most recent firms to put autonomous last-mile delivery to the test with a project in Bern, Switzerland, that debuted this month.
Swiss transportation and logistics company Planzer has teamed up with fellow Swiss firm Loxo, which develops autonomous driving software solutions, for a two-year pilot project in which a Loxo-equipped, Planzer parcel delivery van will handle last-mile logistics in Bern’s city center.
The project coincides with Swiss regulations on autonomous driving that are expected to take effect next spring.
Referred to as “Planzer–Dynamic Micro-Hub w LOXO,” the project aims to address both sustainability issues and traffic congestion in urban areas.
The delivery vehicle, a Volkswagen ID. Buzz battery-electric minivan, will feature Loxo’s Level 4 Digital Driver navigation software, a highly automated solution that allows driverless operation. The van was retrofitted to include space for two swap boxes for parcel storage.
During the two-year pilot phase, Loxo’s Digital Driver will navigate a commercial vehicle several times a day from Planzer’s railway center to various logistics points in Bern's city center. There, the parcels will be reloaded onto small electric vehicles and delivered to end customers by Planzer’s parcel delivery staff.
Following the completion of the pilot phase, Planzer and Loxo will build on the program for rollout in other Swiss cities, the companies said.
The partners said the project addresses the increasing requirements of urban supply chains and aims to ensure the “scalability of their disruptive solution.” With largely emission-free delivery, it contributes to greater levels of sustainability for the city as a living space, they also said.
“The uniqueness of this project lies in the fact that it will have a direct impact on society,” Planzer’s CEO and Chairman Nils Planzer said in a statement announcing the project. “We didn't just want to integrate automated technology into existing systems, we wanted to develop a completely new concept and a new business model.”
As the hours tick down toward a “seemingly imminent” strike by East Coast and Gulf Coast dockworkers, experts are warning that the impacts of that move would mushroom well-beyond the actual strike locations, causing prevalent shipping delays, container ship congestion, port congestion on West coast ports, and stranded freight.
However, a strike now seems “nearly unavoidable,” as no bargaining sessions are scheduled prior to the September 30 contract expiration between the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and the U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX) in their negotiations over wages and automation, according to the transportation law firm Scopelitis, Garvin, Light, Hanson & Feary.
The facilities affected would include some 45,000 port workers at 36 locations, including high-volume U.S. ports from Boston, New York / New Jersey, and Norfolk, to Savannah and Charleston, and down to New Orleans and Houston. With such widespread geography, a strike would likely lead to congestion from diverted traffic, as well as knock-on effects include the potential risk of increased freight rates and costly charges such as demurrage, detention, per diem, and dwell time fees on containers that may be slowed due to the congestion, according to an analysis by another transportation and logistics sector law firm, Benesch.
The weight of those combined blows means that many companies are already planning ways to minimize damage and recover quickly from the event. According to Scopelitis’ advice, mitigation measures could include: preparing for congestion on West coast ports, taking advantage of intermodal ground transportation where possible, looking for alternatives including air transport when necessary for urgent delivery, delaying shipping from East and Gulf coast ports until after the strike, and budgeting for increased freight and container fees.
Additional advice on softening the blow of a potential coastwide strike came from John Donigian, senior director of supply chain strategy at Moody’s. In a statement, he named six supply chain strategies for companies to consider: expedite certain shipments, reallocate existing inventory strategically, lock in alternative capacity with trucking and rail providers , communicate transparently with stakeholders to set realistic expectations for delivery timelines, shift sourcing to regional suppliers if possible, and utilize drop shipping to maintain sales.