Norfolk Southern has continued leasing locomotives to handle traffic surges and alleviate congestion that has occurred in particular in the southern reaches of its network.
The Class 1 carrier leased 90 locomotives in the first quarter and has added another 50 leased units to its fleet
NS CEO James Squires said the additional motive power will help handle traffic growth and enable the carrier to convert 120 older six-axle DC units to like-new AC-traction locomotives as part of its ongoing DC-to-AC conversion program.
It has also hired 400 new conductors to keep its train and engine crew headcount up.
Speaking to the Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2018 Transportation Conference, Squires said congestion in the South prompted NS to plan to reopen a hump yard in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Squires said the hump at DeButts Yard will be a hybrid operation, meaning it will be used to classify traffic for local customers. Block swapping will continue to be done in the yard as well.
In the past year NS has increased its building of large blocks of cars and swapping them en route to minimize handling and to speed shipments along.
NS had closed the DeButts hump in May 2017. Since them terminal dwell times in Chattanooga have risen sharply.
Dwell times in Chattanooga have increased from an average of 33.5 hours in the second quarter of 2017 to 49.5 hours in April and to 62.7 hours this month.
Squires did not say when the hump would reopen. It remains in place, but workers must re-install the retarders used in hump operations.
Dwell times have also risen in other yards in the South as have average train speeds.
Despite efforts NS has made since last year, the service metrics in that region have not improved.
“We’re holding our own against strong volume growth,” Squires says. “Volume on our network is at a 12-year high.”
The NS CEO said that humps allow resiliency and operational flexibility when traffic rises by absorbing surges in traffic and metering the flow of volume by holding cars until they are ready to be released to customers.
“Customer service is not where we want it to be,” Squires said. “I want our customers to feel fully satisfied with the service they are getting from us, and right now many of them don’t.”
Despite the problems it has experienced, Squires said NS had the strongest volume growth among the Class I railroads for the year to date and that demand for rail service is the strongest he’s ever seen.
Tags: Chattanooga Tennessee, James Squires, leased locomotive power, Norfolk Southern, NS CEO James Squires, NS DeButts Yard, NS hump yards, NS service issues, NS service metrices, NS service report, railroad hump yards
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