Future Of North American Railroading

[PereMarquette1225fan]

Hey everyone,
I thought I'd open a thread devoted to the future of North American Railroading. I believe CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern, BNSF Railway, Union Pacific and Kansas City Southern will be using very advanced diesel locomotives. All the crew has to do is just start the locomotive up or shut it down and the locomotive will drive itself. I seriously doubt if the railroads will upgrade to electrics. I mean, the Pennsylvania Railroad's electrification was expensive, but for all the class 1s to use electrics. That would nearly bankrupt the U.S.A., but I'm not ruling it out either, because I should keep an open thought to a future where all trains are propelled by catenary or third rail. But, I doubt any of us will see that, maybe our great-great-grandkids may see electrics where we currently see diesels. I would die, if BNSF Railway started using electrics. I've grown pretty found of their diesel units, and an electric would be too much.
ONTO CANADA...
I couldn't see either the Canadian National or Canadian Pacific make the switch either from diesel to electric. That would make me sad, although I love steam locomotives, I'd rather see them or diesels pull trains in the future and not electrics. Although, the Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 is my favorite electric, if all the miles of rail were electrified, many scenic railfanning locations will be altered and not for the beter.
Now, I'll let you tell your future of North American Railroading...

 

[nikos1]

More GEVO's that self destruct and have to be replaced with more GEVO's in 20 years.

 

[BobCass]

Hi: I truly beleive that when the Frieght Rairoads start to see some of the benifits of Electricity they wiil also follow suit..Now I'm talking about HSR and the advantages of Electricity..I think that you will see many dual projects going on at the same time..What I mean by that is, Freight railroads will see
what HSR will be doing and they will through together and work that way..



Bob Cass

 

[JCitron]

I agree with Bob. The areas were the wires exist today used to support electric freight as well. Once the railroads start using the electrics again for freight, I think the idea will catch on and the others will follow suit. The problem though is the cost.

Regarding the railroads you mentioned, I think that these will remain, and the less than stellar performers such as Pan Am and some of the other regionals will end up being absorbed. NS is working with PAR right now with the PAS (Pan Am Southern). I think eventually PAR will be totally absorbed into the fold of the NS.

Right now is really a good time for the North American picture. They've weathered through the recession pretty well, having rebuilt much of their infrastructure during the good times. This has put them in a good position going forward. I've also noticed a nice up turn in freight traffic compared to last year, and even more so recently.

The other thing to think about too is trucks are very expensive to operate compared to rail. They use more fuel, beat up the roads, and can't travel as far in one trip. These are the things that railroads have an advantage of over trucking. Over the past year or so, I saw a major consolidation in the trucking industry and mostly for the worse. Conway ended up closing over 50 terminals and does not plan to reopen them. Yellow, Roadway and NewPenn have gone through a major restructuring, which sadly has left the parent company in a very bad state financially. In fact I've seen only 1 Yellow Freight and 2 NewPenn trucks in the past year, and this was all recent in the past month. This lends me to believe that they really have retrenched severely. All the while they've retrenched, CSX, UP, and NS are rehiring employees and are actually moving freight.

John