OCR Text |
Show For bulk freight the lowest costs for all distances are by barge. Barge transportation of package freight is cheaper than carload rail transportation for land distances exceeding 500 miles; at 400 miles the costs for rail hauls are the same, and under 400 miles, the barge costs are higher than rail. * * * But the variations of railroad rates have little or no relationship to cost variations; some carload traffic is carried at below-cost rates while other carloads of the same or different kinds of freight are charged rates many times higher than cost. * * * It is clear that the relative economy of the different types of transportation is quite different, measured by what it costs the carrier to perform the service, as contrasted with what the carriers charge for their services. * * * Based on its studies to date, the Board is convinced that reductions of at least 20 percent below the costs shown in this study are practically attainable by all types of transportation, and in the case of package water carriers, the reduc- tions should approximate 50 percent or greater. Since 1939, costs both by rail and water have substantially increased, but it is still true that waterways are much cheaper than the railroad for bulk freight transportation, and for the long-haul transportation of much other heavy freight. Of course, cost is not the only factor affecting the use of waterways or other means of transportation. Other factors include speed, flexibility, trans- shipment facilities, and seasonal conditions. The figures above show that bulk freight can be transported on modern river channels at a cost one-half or less of the average cost by railroad. Package freight transportation costs by river are relatively less favorable because of high handling costs at the terminals, but for long hauls of heavy freight are still considerably below railroad costs. Comparisons with railroad rates to and from points dependent solely on rail transportation pro- duce still larger differentials in favor of the waterways, because of the practice of the railroads of maintaining much higher rate levels on the "noncompetitive" traffic than on traffic competi- tive with the waterways. The above comparisons, however, are open to the objection that the entire water transportation costs are not given, because nothing is added for the free use by the water carriers of the channels constructed by the Government at the general tax- payer's expense. Opponents of inland waterways contend that if the cost of providing the waterway facilities is included, the apparent economies of river transportation would vanish. This will be dealt with later. Moreover, much bulk freight, due to origination or destination points, cannot move over waterways exclusively, and must bear the cost of rail or truck and of transshipment. Increasing Benefits The benefits from the inland waterways must be gaged by the transportation savings which may reasonably be expected to result from their use, in the light of the cost and value of the transporta- tion services which they are capable of rendering, compared with alternative forms of transporta- tion. On the 40-odd billion annual ton-miles of freight now moving on the inland waterways, the savings estimated by the Army Engineers of 6 mills per ton-mile produces an annual total re- turn in excess of 200 million dollars, or 20 percent on the gross public investment, even after Federal maintenance and operation charges are deducted. These savings will increase as the tonnage grows. Over the past 20 years, ton-miles have increased on the inland waterways at the average rate of 1.75 billion a year. At the present rate of growth, tonnage and ton-miles will double within the next 25 years. In view of the fact that total ton-miles of the country have been increas- ing since 1929 at the rate of 20 billion annually, it would seem reasonable to expect that, by 1975, with the substantial enlargement of the water- ways after completion of the channels now under construction and authorized, total river ton-miles should be in excess of 100 billion annually (which is the figure already reached both on the high- ways and in the pipelines, and less than one-sixth of the present railway ton-miles). On such a volume of tonnage the savings to the public in lower transportation charges, computed at the rate shown above, would exceed half a billion dollars annually. In order to translate these general estimates of total savings from inland waterways into the spe- cific benefits that accrue to a region from the lowering of transportation costs, one must visual- 203 |