All six major U.S. railroads are dealing with congestion problems, especially in the Southern California area. That's why some companies are re-configuring their logistics plans to spread the cargo among several points of entry and transport routes. Norfolk Southern and CN are redesigning their networks, and CSX is pursuing a strategy called One Plan.
      According to a profile of the company's approach published in January 2005 by The Wall Street Journal, the goal is to cut freight car handling by 5 percent and freight mileage by up to 2 percent. The results are evident in average train speed, which rose to 20.7 mph in the fourth quarter of 2004 from 19.5 mph during the second quarter. What's more, on-time train departures were up by more than 14 percent, to 53.7 percent, over that span.
      The combination of improvements, reported the Journal, has resulted in a shipment time of 83 hours for automobiles from Michigan to Florida (down from 108 hours), in part because those vehicles are now handled just once, in Louisville, Ky., rather than twice, in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Jacksonville, Fla.
      Another case in point for CSX also happens to involve Louisville: The cross-docking of Visteon parts headed for Ford's Louisville plant at TNT's rail logistics center in Toledo, Ohio. The parts used to travel straight from Michigan to Kentucky by rail, but the multimodal solution will get the job done faster.
      "This cross-dock should reduce transit times by more than two days," said Patrick Jolley, RLC Contract Manager, TNT Logistics North America.
      Class 1 railroads CSX, Norfolk Southern, CN and BNSF are all IAMC member organizations.
     

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The Sturbridge Industrial Business Park in Sturbridge, Mass., is being developed on property recently sold by Corning to IAMC member company Weston Solutions, Inc.

      Industrial brownfield rehab end uses tend to fall into the categories of retail/commercial, residential or recreational. But occasionally these properties see re-use by the same sector that used them the first time around.
      Such is the case in Sturbridge, Mass., where in December 2004, environmental and redevelopment firm Weston Solutions, Inc., of West Chester, Pa., announced it had purchased from Corning subsidiary Corning Net Optix, Inc., the 56-acre (22-hectare) Sturbridge Industrial Business Park.
      Rick Weakland, director of corporate real estate for Corning, Inc., oversees a 30-country portfolio of more than 200 properties that comprise some 20 million sq. ft. (195,090 sq. m.) and have a book value of around US$1.5 billion. He says the Sturbridge property, acquired via a business acquisition, was never utilized. "We aren't in the redevelopment business, so our interest was to convey it to someone who could redevelop it," he tells Site Selection.
      That was complicated by environmental issues that arose. After trying to market the property for a couple years, Corning put together an internal team comprising various disciplines, as well as environmental insurance firm Marsh USA, to put out an RFP. Weston, with its expertise in both redevelopment and environmental liability transfer, won the bid.
      Weston plans to continue redeveloping the property into a mixed-use business park. Located one hour from Boston and from Hartford, Conn., it is the town's only property zoned for general industrial use, and is already home to several companies.
      John Walker, Washington, D.C.-based manager of real estate services for Weston, is an IAMC service provider member.