8 June 2009
With 5,000 Locomotives in Storage, Class Is Won't be Placing Power Orders Any Time Soon
The dramatic drop-off in freight traffic has
driven Class Is to store locomotives in droves. As of 20 May 2009, Union Pacific Railroad had stowed away 2,100
locomotives, or 25 percent of its 8,400-unit fleet. A bullet point on a PowerPoint slide in BNSF Railway Co.'s Q1
presentation (Near-term Initiatives) read thusly: "Over 900 locomotives stored or returned".
Meanwhile, CSX Transportation had parked 600 or 15.8 percent of its 3,800-unit fleet. Norfolk Southern Railway had stored
400 locomotives or 11 percent of its fleet. Canadian Pacific had stowed 350 road and yard locomotives, or 23 percent of its fleet.
Kansas City Southern had stored 360 units; CN, 281 units.
That's nearly 5,000 mothballed units. Needless to say, Class Is won't be ordering any locomotives this year. But most will continue to
take delivery of units ordered in 2008 and 2007. Even so, deliveries won't come close to the 900 or so that Class Is have received
annually the past five years. Perhaps 500 or 600 will be delivered in 2009, power prognosticators told us during the "Fleet
Stats" information-gathering process. Expect even fewer - 300 to 400 - in 2010.
Beyond that? It's anybody's guess.
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