Watch: NS 47th Street Intermodal Facility High Frequency Plan
Written by William C. Vantuono, Editor-in-Chief
Norfolk Southern 47th Street Yard, Chicago. NS photo
In June 2022, Norfolk Southern rolled out the most recent iteration of its Thoroughbred Operating Plan (TOP) called TOP|SPG (Service, Productivity and Growth). One objective was increasing throughput at the railroad’s intermodal facilities by maximizing intermodal unit velocity, capacity and reliability across the entire network, resulting in more consistent service for customers.
NS created what it calls a “high frequency plan” (video below) originating at its 47th Street Intermodal Facility in Chicago. “Chicago is our single-largest origin point for intermodal volume and a natural location to comingle traffic toward [similar] destinations to achieve greater intermodal unit velocity,” NS explained. “We set the network up for all trains to and from the Northeast to originate and terminate at 47th Street. This comingling of traffic to and from [similar] points on our network created greater outlet frequency for our customers while balancing productivity. On-time delivery performance is averaging above 90%. We’ve seen velocity improve at our facilities as well as quicker turnaround with our customer’s containers and trailers in these key lanes. These improvements are vital to our customer-centric, operations-driven service organization.”
“We took a holistic look at our operations to better expedite the speed of our containers,” said Chief Operating Officer Paul Duncan. “Using a ‘Team of Teams’ approach [involving] Operations, Finance and Marketing, we are safely achieving a new level of reliable and resilient service for our customers.”
“This plan was born from listening, understanding and anticipating the needs of our customers,” added Chief Marketing Officer Ed Elkins. “Since we’ve made these strategic adjustments, we have delivered an entirely new level of consistent service for our customers. By moving containers faster through our network, we will be better positioned to compete and grow.”
