East Coast attracts greater share of intermodal traffic

East Coast attracts greater share of intermodal traffic U.S. railroad officials say they are experiencing a significant shift in business as overall transcontinental intermodal flows decline.
   The executives say East Coast ports now handle about 25 percent of ocean imports compared to 18 percent four or five years ago.
   Norfolk Southern has experienced a 9 percent increase in East Coast imports, said Jeffrey S. Heller, assistant vice president international marketing, at a port industry conference in early October.
   “International intermodal imports to the Northeast are below 2000 volume levels, while imports to the Southeast are following the same trend even as overall trade has doubled,” said Ted Prince, president of Consolidated Chassis Management and a former rail and ocean carrier executive.
   Stephen Branscom, vice president for consumer products at BNSF Railway, said he believes East Coast imports won’t go much above 30 percent of total container traffic.
   He made his comments last week at a major freight transportation conference in Atlanta sponsored by the Intermodal Association of North America, the National Industrial Transportation League and the Transportation Intermediaries Association.
   For more information about this trend and Norfolk Southern’s business plans see the upcoming issue of American Shipper. ' Eric Kulisch