Ask Peoria Station 3-8-18
Time for more Transportation Q & A!
Feel free to post your questions in the comments section on any transportation topic. If I don't have an answer, I'll find one.
Feel free to post your questions in the comments section on any transportation topic. If I don't have an answer, I'll find one.
- David P. Jordan
There is an article in the 3/8/18 PJ Star quoting the director of the Peoria Airport. He says that travelers need to arrive 2 hours earlier to PIA due to new TSA screening procedures. However, what is described in the article does not seem all that new. Longest I have ever waited at is about 15 minutes. Can you provide any further insight into the new TSA screening procedures? Thank you. Here is the article: http://www.pjstar.com/news/20180308/tsas-new-screening-rules-take-effect-at-peorias-airport
ReplyDeleteI saw that. I'll dig up what I can find. I will say that PIA is probably erring on the side of caution.
DeleteI flew out of PIA on Sunday morning. The only thing that seemed different was that TSA kept reminding everyone to put all electronics (laptops, cell phones, tablets, etc) in separate bins where they were visible.
DeleteThanks, I doubt the rules changed much.
DeleteWhat's going on with Hitchcock in Canton? I haven't seen any rail activity or ever people over there in a week or so. There hasn't been a car there in well over a week. Waiting on accumilating more scrap i'm guessing? or it's going to be a few times a month thing?
ReplyDeleteInitial activity must not have been under a long-term contract. It should be eventually, hopefully soon.
DeleteYou should check out early commuter airlines before 1975 on FB. Lots of info about CGX circa 1968.
ReplyDeleteIs that what it is called, "Early Commuter Airlines Before 1975"?
DeleteWhy isn't there much activity on the KJRY line anymore seems like only once a week now? It was twice a week last year. So the line dwindling down? or going to pick up later down the line? It seems deader than dead anymore unless i've just been missing them.
ReplyDeleteIt is possible that Roquette America's corn syrup and corn germ traffic has slowed (seasonal?) and KJRY train operations have been curtailed as a result.
DeleteADM's Decatur West Plant is the destination for that corn germ some 900+ carloads a year. Plant maintenance could temporarily suspend shipments. Markets for corn syrup are said to be in decline to the health concerns over the use of the project in so many processed foods.
David,
ReplyDeleteWhat is up with Pioneer Railcorp? Normally their annual report aka proxy statement and audited financials are published on March 30 or March 31. None for 2017 so far this year. I read your comments on KJRY which is THE breadbasket of Pioneer, losing that much business from Roquette is OUCH. Apparently there is also lost business on the Argos segment of the Elkhart and Western and of course the Miss Central and Alabama operations have either zero or very little customers anymore. Pioneer has always be good about generating new business but one wonders if this is alot to overcome. Love your posts on Yahoo Peoria Railfan as well. Thanks.
I'm unsure of the reason for delaying the release of the annual report.
DeleteBusiness from Roquette America, particularly outbound corn syrup, isn't what it used to be but is still decent. Most corn syrup not interchanged to BNSF at Keokuk goes to NS at Peoria. Corn germ still goes to ADM in Decatur, and there are other movements as well via the Peoria Gateway.
Business with Amsted Rail's Griffin Wheel Div. (switched by BNSF at Keokuk), which used to ship boxcar loads of locomotive wheels KJRY-UP and received scrap metal via UP-KJRY prior to the September 2013 Spoon River Bridge derailment has been sporadic. Storage car business is pretty good though.
Pioneer does an excellent job drumming up new business, but inevitably, factories close and/or Class I connections screw up shortlines' business so often that it shifts to trucks. The Elkhart & Western was effected by the former, but there should be new opportunities for business.
Sadly, traditional customers on the Mississippi Central and Alabama railroads have closed and both lines survive on car storage. At least this provides some revenue.
The Napoleon, Defiance & Western was an excellent investment by Pioneer. I was lucky enough to catch an eastbound local near Napoleon on May 18, 2016. Track upgrades have brought a substantial increase in tomato paste traffic for two warehouses which supply Campbell's Soup in Napoleon, Ohio. A transload facility at Defiance should add business in the near future.