INTERMODAL/PORT DEVELOPMENT Reshaping Europe’s core transport axes
Traditionally intermodal rail has been a weak point of inland dis- tribution over Spanish ports, for various reasons. The service offer was weak and inefficient, while trucking was better suited to dis- tribution over the main imp/ex ports, Barcelona and Valencia, be- cause they served dynamic local hinterlands and in any case the Madrid market is not too far away.
Med TEN-T priority However, the ports have been tak- ing steps to improve their rail con-
vinced that gantry cranes can change the way intermodal ter- minals operate for the better.
Scaling down Some in the industry watching NWOH believed its operational model would not scale to smaller facilities, either on an efficiency or a cost basis. CSX, however, is ready to take the gantry crane concept to more facilities. NWOH is currently handling
in the region of 450,000 to 525,000 lifts a year and another 900,000 to 1.1M containers are processed through the switching yard system. As previously noted, the yard system uses low-height Terex Noell Sprinter Carriers to move containers between the five cranes and there are just two yard tractors at the whole facility. NWOH is mainly a tranship-
ment facility and CSX does not intend to use it as a blueprint to redevelop other terminals with the same layout and equipment. How- ever, what it does intend to repli- cate is the level of efficiency the terminal has achieved by reduc- ing (and eliminating where possi- ble) hostling moves and introduc- ing a higher level of process auto- mation to the operation.
Columbus plan CSX is now working on a project to redesign the yard at
its
Columbus, Ohio terminal to use gantry cranes. Wilby Whitt, Presi- dent, CSX Intermodal Terminals said this will be CSX’s first experi- ment with “retooling” an existing facility on a small footprint. It will install three RMGs with a span sufficient for four processing tracks and a 3-wide x 3-high buffer zone. The cranes will have a single can- tilever for handling road trucks and yard tractors. The move to widespan cranes
enables terminals to handle more containers on a given site, but yard capacity is not the only factor. Using a gantry crane to manage tracks, a buffer zone and the road truck/yard tractor interface allows the terminal to eliminate a signifi- cant amount of hostling moves. The typical narrow span
RTGs “works the train” but does not stack containers; they must be placed on a chassis as the train is unloaded and each outward move must be brought to the train in turn. It is not possible to coordi-
nate “live loading” (bringing road trucks straight to the train) over a full length train, so boxes
Container ports in the north, south and east are vying to retain, or win, main gateway status
nectivity as they move to extend their hinterland. The EU has des- ignated the Mediterranean corri- dor as a priority project in the Basic Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) and the Port of Barcelona states that this will boost its position as the main dis- tribution hub in southern Europe
are staged and managed in a wheeled parking space. With enough cranes and
enough buffer space yard hostling could be eliminated altogether. UP’s plan for its redesigned Intermodal Container Transfer Facility (ICTF) in Los Angeles is to eliminate all but two yard trac- tors, but this will require no less than 39 widespan RMGs at a fa- cility handling around 1.2M lifts.
Capacity boost At Columbus, CSX plans to boost capacity from 170,000 to 400,000 lifts while dramatically reducing yard hostling moves, but with three cranes it will not be able to eliminate hostling altogether. CSX plans to use the cantilev-
ers to serve primarily road trucks that will park chassis at 90 deg to the cranes. Trucks will bring a chassis and container to the inter- change zone as close as possible to its loading position on the train and drop the trailer. As trains are unloaded, out-
bound road containers will be loaded on empty chassis under the cantilevers where possible. The buffer zone will be used to ground containers where the lack of a chassis would hold up the crane. Some yard hostling will be re-
quired to move boxes waiting for trucks to a yard parking space to freeing up a spot under the cranes for an outbound rail container. Road trucks then collect an out- bound load from either under the cantilever or the yard. Whitt says CSX spent consid-
erable time observing rail yards in Europe before deciding on this traffic flow pattern as the best way to maximise productivity at Columbus. And the cranes are not the only initiative. CSX is also in- stalling an additional lead track into the storage yard and chang- ing the train flow from bi-direc- tional to one way.
CSX is also installing two RMGs at its new terminal in Winterhaven, Florida. This facil- ity will have an entirely different layout with (eventually) a nested crane system similar to BNSF’s new Memphis facility. Not every railroad however, is
as sold on the gantry crane con- cept. NS is staying with RTGs for its new Birmingham Intermodal Facility, but has promised local residents it will use hybrid ma- chines if they prove feasible. CN is continuing to upgrade its Brampton Terminal in Toronto with additional reach stackers. ❏
CSX is delighted with the way its new North Baltimore (OH) intermodal facility is performing. It is now “retooling” its Columbus (OH) yard
and the wider Mediterranean. The connection of the port “to
a formidable [standard gauge] rail corridor into France is essential for achieving [our] strategic objective of becoming the main cargo gate- way into the south of Europe and the Mediterranean, mainly from Asia,” stated Sixte Cambra, presi- dent of the port authority (APB).
€50B plug Last month the European Com-
mission tabled a plan that will fund €50B of investment to improve Europe’s
digital networks, including €31.7B for transport projects to build “missing links” and remove bot- tlenecks.
transport, energy and This includes rail construction
between Barcelona, Tarragona and Valencia between 2014 and 2020, rail interconnections between Barcelona’s sea and air ports, im-
proving the existing link between Barcelona and Perpignan - com- pleting a new line, and bypassing Nîmes
on the Perpignan-
Montpelier line. APB believes that the rail cor-
ridor will create a more balanced and hence more sustainable logis- tics system to be created between North and South Europe. Today 75% of the > 18M containers/ carried each year between Europe and Asia via Suez and the Medi- terranean are handled over North Continent ports for transeuropean distribution by rail, inland water- way, truck and feeder shipping.
“Decisive impact” “The rail corridor will have a de- cisive impact on the ability of the Mediterranean ports to gain a greater share of this cargo, allow- ing shipping companies to reduce their transit time by 3-4 days, with corresponding savings in fuel and operating costs and reduction in NOx and GHG emissions,” con- tinued Cambra. Thanks to rail freight liberali- sation in Spain, disillusionment
WorldCargo news
The Port of Bilbao: One extra British Isles-Bilbao containership call means around 330 fewer trucks/day crossing the Pyrenees, says F Jaber Bringas of Sparber Group
with container trucking cartels and improvements to the rail net- work and inland terminals, the share of inland traffic moved over Barcelona by rail has increased sharply. Following a 75% increase last year, the volume grew again by 65% in the first nine months of this year. In absolute terms, intermodal rail’s share of imp/ex container traffic is still just 11.5%, but five years ago it was only 2.5%. Cambra is arguably “optimis-
tic” when it comes to Barcelona being an intermodal gateway for France; transpyrennean rail will be
a bottleneck for some time to come, despite the new standard gauge Perpignan-Figueras line via the Perthus Tunnel south of Perpignan, which is hosting the new “Barcelyon Express” service (WorldCargo News, February 2011, p30) and despite the best inten- tions of the TEN-T agenda.
Gdansk “blueprint”? However, when it comes to Spain itself, it could be a different story. A clue here is, counter-intuitively, something that has happened in the Baltic. Why is Maersk able to
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November 2011
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