Up Front: Battle of the corridors, hubs & gateways

By Peter Hurme

Which freight gateway will you use the most in North America? The Southeast? Northeast? Southwest? Northwest? Canada’s Asia Pacific Gateway? Which corridor will your freight ride on? The Crescent Corridor, or National Gateway Freight Rail Corridor?

What inland freight hub makes the most sense for your distribution needs? Chicago, Memphis, Indianapolis, Dallas, Kansas City?

The economy is still, to quote a phrase from Bill DiBenedetto’s article on export cargoes in this issue, on a “bumpy ride.”
However, public and private freight transport and related investments are flowing in all directions towards developing, dredging, repairing, and marketing where cargo might go.

There currently isn’t as much cargo to go around, so the billions of dollars from federal stimulus monies, D.O.T. TIGER funds and private investors like Warren Buffett, seems to signify at least two things: the bet that the cargo wave will come back some day, and while we wait for that to happen, a race to grab market share sooner than later.

To be fair, there’s another major reason for the funding agenda: the nation’s transportation infrastructure is crumbling. Some would say there is either not enough of this critical investment, or whether the most strategic, smartest such investments are being made. There are others out there in the industry that differ over what roles public versus private investments should play.

What got me thinking about this stuff, in part, were our own regional freight gateway events. Next up for May 11-12 in Portland, Ore., is our third Northwest Intermodal Conference — www.northwestintermodal.com. The PNW competes within itself for containers, autos, agriculture commodities, and even wind energy components.

Yet, the underlying reality is the PNW is often viewed as an entire gateway outside the region, whether your cargo goes through Seattle, Tacoma, Portland, or the other niche ports in the region like Astoria, Coos Bay, Everett, Grays Harbor, Longview or Vancouver USA.
As a freight customer or service provider, when moving product through the PNW, your rail corridor options are finite, as is the main interstate. When it comes to cross-country intermodal through the area – you need to compare and contrast, in varying degrees, the speed, costs, and services to name a few considerations, against the alternatives through British Columbia, Northern and Southern California, Mexico, and the growing elephant in the room – all-water through the Panama Canal to eastern markets.

Our other upcoming freight events will delve into how other regions are, or aren’t, coming along. But no matter how our freight corridors, hubs and gateways get their funding, there is no question about one thing – the game is on!

In This Issue

Up Front

News, Trends & Analysis
News

Trade Tools: Missing money

Capitol Watch: Focus on job creation

Supply Chain
Chris Steele: Why you might be buying industrial real estate soon

Compliance Corner: Use the Web for denied party lists

Tech Trends: From open source to terminal visibility

Product Review: Trucking drayage and chassis management software

Commentary
David Bennett: Real signs of trouble

Gateway Glance
New England

Southern California

The Port Community
Bumpy Ride: Rebuilding PNW containerized exports

Southwest Intermodal: Can intermodal incentives show the way?

The Shipping Environment: Engaging in the community,
slow steaming, and new green products

Oceans are making waves

Casualties
The Big Texas spill leads off this month’s rundown

Final Say
Top 25 TIGER projects