California State Rail Plan 2007-08 to 2017-18

Chapter XVI – Major Freight Issuesrestored, and is lost forever. If rail is not removed the public hearing andenvironmental review processes are not required.TRUCK DIVERSION TO RAIL, SHORT-HAUL RAILSHUTTLESInterstate-5 is one of our nation’s most heavily used routes for both automobileand truck traffic. Absent improvements, the Highway Performance MonitoringSystem (HPMS) projections of the year 2020 highway traffic for I-5 indicate levelof service E and F for virtually the entire distance between San Diego and the SanFrancisco Bay Area, as well as for metropolitan Portland and Seattle/Tacoma.The deteriorating condition of I-5 makes it even more imperative to considerstrategies to improve the ability of the rail system to absorb freight traffic.The share of potential intermodal (containerized freight) rail traffic actuallycaptured by intermodal rail is 17 percent. While this is better than many corridors,the fact that the average length of a truck haul in the corridor is 936 miles –a distance at which rail intermodal is highly competitive with truck – suggeststhere is room to improve on this share.Failing to achieve the base case forecast would reduce rail tonnage by up to43 percent and increase truck tonnage by up to 19 percent between the selectedorigin-destination pairs. Truck traffic in the corridor would increase up to6.3 billion ton-miles, or 451 million truck miles traveled, in the year 2020.An approximately conversion of rail to truck is 2.2 truck trips are required to moveone intermodal container (FEU), and 3.3 truck trips are required to move one carload of bulk freight.ELEMENTS NEEDED TO SUPPORT SHORT HAUL INTERMODALRAIL SERVICEForeign trade is a cornerstone of California’s prosperity. Transportation ofinternational containers is California’s lifeline to foreign markets, but that lifelineis threatened. If importers and exporters must rely on increasingly congestedfreeways to move their goods, both their ability to compete and the state’s abilityto grow will be jeopardized. If that occurs these shippers will locate elsewhere.Short haul intermodal rail service can provide a solution that benefits the goodsmovement industry, and provides public benefits such as congestion mitigation,safety, fuel savings, reduced emissions and roadway preservation.The Class I railroads are reluctant to use scarce capacity for low-revenue, shorthaulintermodal moves if those moves displace higher-yielding long-haul business.In order to make the economics work for short-haul intermodal rail service thefollowing elements must be present.• To be attractive to the railroads, the service must either offer a comparableprofit margin, arrange to augment capacity, or achieve some balance233