ATLANTA — Norfolk Southern has expanded its interchange improvement program to all of its short line connections in a bid to boost carload volume growth.
NS sought to improve interchange consistency and reliability when it launched its Short Line Performance Project with 40 short lines last year. “It led to just absolutely above normal growth for us,” says Stefan Loeb, the railroad’s vice president of business development and first and final mile markets. “So as an example, those 40 interchanges through 2024 grew at 4.85% volume. It outperformed our general business in those same markets.”
Last year NS’s overall merchandise business was up 1%.
The Short Line Interchange Project, as it’s now called, has been rolled out to all of the railroad’s 260-plus short line partners, NS announced Wednesday, May 21. The program creates real-time data and communication channels so that NS and short lines can quickly iron out — or prevent — service problems.
“ It’s about collaboration to be able to sit around the table and exchange ideas and use data to determine what ideas move forward and then make a commitment to act on them,” says Ryan Higgins, chief commercial officer at short line holding company OmniTRAX.
Tim Schumm, general manager of OmniTRAX’s Alabama & Tennessee River Railway, says the program provides accurate data on interchanges with NS. “It also lets us resolve any problems quickly. Instead of waiting a day or a week to have the problem resolved we could literally do it in hours,” he says.
About 40% of Norfolk Southern’s carload volume originates or terminates on a connecting short line railroad.
BNSF has their “Short line select” program:
https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/bnsf-railway-launches-program-to-improve-interchange-with-short-lines/
I wonder if other roads will emulate this program, or will they be affected by the “not invented here” issue.
Good news for delivering that “last mile” experience on time and at less cost.