Opinion: GE, Norfolk Southern leaders say future of freight rail is in technology, not steel
Written by jrood
Recent reports indicate that manufacturing in the United States is ready to rebound. Factory orders in certain sectors are showing their sharpest uptick in almost five years.
No doubt, this is a good sign for the economy’s recovery. It is also a
sign that now is the time to address America’s growing transportation
infrastructure challenge in order to meet these expected demands and
spur new economic growth.
The fact is that America has long
needed, and will increasingly need, more and better infrastructure to
move the steel, coal, industrial equipment and intermediate products
that we need for daily life. Experts say that over the next 25 years
alone, the demand for freight-moving capacity in this country will
increase by more than 90 percent.
Anyone who has spent time idling
on a clogged interstate will agree — adding more trucks to move
freight over the highways is an unsustainable solution. But what is
sustainable, and what is practical — from both an environmental and
economic standpoint — is looking to railroads to carry more of the
load. A freight train can move a ton of freight an average of 480 miles
on one gallon of diesel fuel. That’s the equivalent of moving a ton of
freight from New York to Cleveland on a single gallon.
Economists
project that if just 10 percent of long-distance freight currently
carried on highways were switched over to rail, the national fuel
savings would exceed one billion gallons a year.
Fortunately, the
nation’s railroads are looking ahead and making the capacity investments
today that will enable more freight to be moved by rail tomorrow. The
improvement through a public-private partnership of Norfolk Southern’s
Crescent Corridor route, a 2,500-mile rail network from Memphis and New
Orleans to the Northeast, is one example. But laying more tracks isn’t
the only solution. In technology, there are answers.
A
breakthrough technology known as RailEdge Movement Planner can enable
railroads to accommodate more freight faster without laying a single new
track. We think this GE-developed technology — something like a
next-generation air traffic control system for trains — is the future
of railroading.
Simply put, it’s about optimizing the railroad
resources that are already in place. The RailEdge Movement Planner
software takes into account train schedules, traffic control systems,
and train movements relative to each other — across an entire network
— to create an optimized traffic plan for any given day, even down to
the optimal speed at which a particular train should travel. Never
before has it been possible to integrate so many variables to generate
the "perfect travel plan."
An optimized travel plan increases
on-time deliveries, since trains are specifically routed to avoid
delays. It also translates into tangible performance benefits as it
increases the average network train velocity speed by 10-20 percent or
two-to-four miles per hour. One mile per hour in velocity improvement
has the potential to save approximately $200 million in capital and
expense annually.
This is one technology solution to the
infrastructure challenge. There will be others. We agree with Warren
Buffett’s observation that, "Our country’s prosperity depends on its
having an efficient and well-maintained rail system."
While the
U.S. is focusing on an efficient passenger rail system through
high-speed rail, the need for investment in new technology development
to improve speed and efficiency in freight is equally important.
Indeed,
according to U.S. Department of Commerce, every dollar spent on
investments in freight railroading yields $3 in economic output, and
each $1 billion in rail investment creates 20,000 jobs.
The
American economy may be chugging back to life now, but to keep it moving
ahead for the long haul, an investment in the development of more
innovations like these will be needed.
Contributed to GoErie.com
by Jeff Immelt, chairman and chief executive of General Electric and
Wick Moorman, chairman and chief executive of Norfolk Southern.
