Subject: Rail volume and service declining
Rail traffic plunged 11% between 2014 and 2024 — and the fall-off in coal is not entirely to blame. Even if you exclude coal altogether, volume still dropped by 1%.

Why the shift to trucks? “Some 66% of shippers receive on-time performance of 80% or better from trucking partners, compared to just 16% from railroads.”

Other annoyances include a lack of service guarantees and timely price quotes from railroads. BNSF Railway, for its part, has recognized the problem and created the Quantum premium intermodal service — which aims for 95% on-time performance — to combat the trucking threat.

https://open.substack.com/pub/...

https://www.trains.com/trn/new...