Intermodal slowing due to protests

Oakland is closing at times due to protests and inability of workers to get in, or workers engaging in stoppages to protest. This is also effecting the railroads ability to access Oakland, Long Beach/L.A. and Seattle. Lots of cans being reshuffled, cancelled or rolled on the outbound, inbound maybe sitting longer.

 

Many of those are out of service engines. There's a been a couple of articles recently about both UP and BNSF parking engines. There's something like 200 BNSF locomotives parked in a yard in SLC. It has to do with them putting together these longer, 2 to 3 mile long trains that might require 7 or 8 engines, instead of 8 or 9 smaller trains using two or 3 engines. The reduction in coal trains is a huge factor too, and phasing out equipment. When I used to go through the So. Side of Grand Junction, Colo. every week, there's around 40 UPRR engines on a siding that have been there for 5+ years. Outside Bridgeport, Nebraska there's 3 dozen parked on a siding. The BN just reduced operations at a repair facility in Alliance, Ne., there a couple dozen engines sitting there.

 

I believe it, also, because of all this COVID stuff, a lot of rail freight (especially cars and some other stuff) is not moving, start looking at all the car rack rail cars you see sitting on sidings. Along I 70 east of Denver there's a couple of spots with at least 50 in each spot, along I 76 there were several spots, but they've been moved to other sidings. Shortly, you're going to start seeing a lot of coal hoppers sitting as well, although I was told recently that the railroads are starting to scrap older coal cars, and swap newer ones into those positions as some of these coal plants close and the cars aren't needed.