Problems and Characteristics

Comprehensive Planning Most terminal problems in the past have been solved piecemeal. Railroads have built and expanded yards as their local traffic plan dictated, but only recently has this been done with regard to other yards in the system. Parking facilities often are placed where land is available with little regard to accessibility, interference with traffic flow, or projected land uses. Terminal planning should be an integral part of comprehensive planning. It should relate the terminal facilities and functions to the proposed land uses as well as to the transportation system. Comprehensive terminal planning is made difficult by a lack of tradition and experience and by a mixture of private, municipal, county, state, and federal ownership and responsibility. With comprehensive planning, conflicts can be resolved before they become set in construction and land use patterns established to guide the planning of all elements.

Facility Design An obvious problem is the operational and engineering design of the various terminal facilities. Such design must satisfy a variety of requirements as to (a) mode, (b) traffic types, (c) required capacity (a reasonable current peak load with provision for expansion), (d) community and regional planning, (e) relation to other parts of the transportation system, (f) operational speed and efficiency, (g) effects on the environment, and (h) service to shippers

Operations Plant design must be directed toward facilitating terminal operations and the relation of those operations to line-haul movements. Door-to-door travel time, both for freight and passengers, merits special consideration. Terminal delays, unfortunately, have been a major factor in poor door-to-door performance as well as in poor equipment utilization. Vehicles and traffic must move rapidly through terminals. Coordinated layout with a minimum of back haul, cross haul, and duplication of facilities and routes must be planned and operated to maximize vehicle utilization.

Turn-around Time Terminal efficiency and equipment are reflected in the overall time for a vehicle to be placed empty for loading, moved to its destination, and unloaded ready for another load. Line-haul time is usually a small proportion of the total time thus consumed. For tramp steamersand gypsy truckers, efficiency is reflected in the time to arrive in a terminal at the place of unloading, unload, take on another load, and be under way again. These times will vary greatly in individual cases, but average times are known for some carriers. A railroad car, for example, requires 10 to 14 days. Ships will be in port varying lengths of time depending on tonnage-4 to 12 hours for bulk cargo carriers on the Lakes, 6 to 10 days for an 8000-ton (7256-tonnes) general cargo ship. Truck trailers will arrive loaded at a freight station in the morning and go out loaded again that night when traffic is moving freely. The differences intime reflect in part the efficiency of the terminal (for example, ships may have to await their turn at a wharf) or the technological characteristics of the carrier of which size is of considerable importance. A railroad car that has to pass through one or more intermediate terminal yards before reaching the yard that will classify it for road haul is not going to show a favorable terminal-time figure. A poor harbor channel may require a ship to lie at anchor outside the entrance waiting for favorable tides and currents. Flexibility in detailed terminal movements is an inherent techno-operational advantage for trucks and automobiles; lack of that flexibility is a disadvantage for railroads. Long hours of ground crew inspection and maintenance are behind the excellent safety record and low point-to-point flight time of commercial airlines.

Turnaround time has an obvious relation to the amount of equipment required. Shortening the average turnaround time of a railroad freight car would be equivalent to adding thousands of additional cars to the existing car fleet. Cutting turnaround time in half would permit a truck, ship, or airplane line to handle the same volume of traffic with approximately half the number of vehicles.

Availability of equipment in terms of ownership, physical condition of that equipment, and suitability for a particular type of traffic are contributing factors in equipment supply. Of considerable import is the effort made by local supervision to keep equipment moving forward. Making a supervisor cost-responsible for the time that a car, trailer, barge, or aircraft is under his jurisdiction could have a salutary effect.

One element in turnaround time beyond the direct control of those carriers affected is the abuse of equipment-railroad cars, barges, motor trailers-by shippers and consignees. Where a cargo unit-car, trailer, container, or barge-is placed for unloading on Friday at a plant working a five-day week, the unit will remain idle and under load until an unloading crew reports for duty Monday morning. Once unloaded, the units may be held several days to receive an outbound load, the shipper fearing a unit will not be available when he orders it. Other abuses include holding the cargo units for storage, ordering more units than are immediately needed, leaving a unit dirty and filled with dunnage after unloading. All these and other delays increase turnaround time and the number of units required to give service. Single unit carriers are less subject to this delay than assembled unit carriers. Pipelines, conveyors, and aerial tramways do not have the problem at all.

Terminals versus Land Use Terminal location in relation to land use plagues both transportation and urban planners. Ideally located terminal facilities are close to traffic sources. Railroads have a competitive advantage with in-town locations giving proximity to sources of traffic. With lack of adequate zoning in the past, industry and commerce have located in widely scattered parts of many urban areas. The result has been a complex crisscrossing of rail, truck, and canal routes.

A large city with an established land use pattern can do little to improve the situation except at great expense. Rail lines usually were there first and require that they be "kept whole" if asked to move their tracks or facilities; that is, the rail line should bear no cost for the move and there should be no loss of traffic, of traffic potential, or of services presently being rendered. If such loss occurs, there must be full compensation.

Street level access routes pose obvious problems of grade crossing hazards and delays and of traffic congestion. Placing rail lines and expressways on elevated structures or in open cuts gives some relief but tends to divide the community and poses access problems across the route. Drainage and refuse accumulations are problems in open cuts. Tunnel access gives surface relief but is costly and brings problems with under- ground water, gas, and sewage mains and other utilities; there can be little or no access to industry along the route. Transportation corridors placing more than one mode on the same right of way, as with rapid transit in the median of an expressway, have been used successfully. Air rights may be utilized in the form of buildings over tracks or expressways. Parking garages may be placed underground. Consolidation and abandonment of duplicate facilities have proven advantageous. Union truck and bus terminals reduce cross-haul and duplicate routes. Terminal railroads provide for the unbiased access of several rail lines to shippers without duplication of trackage. Conflicting with accessibility to traffic sources is the need for accessibility to intercity routes-to main rail lines, intercity highways, and to harbour areas. The development of industrial parks where access to transportation is combined with other needed services and utilities is a forward step in land use planning.

Effects on Environment Terminal facilities and operation make serious contributions to all forms of pollution-air, water, noise, and visual. Auto exhausts from parking areas; dust from coal, grain, and ore dumping; noise from the impact, concussion, and retarder shriek of rail yards; discharges from ships in harbours; the "Chinese Wall" effect of access routes; and the rumble of trucks going to and from freight and trailer-on-freight-car terminals exemplify possible pollution sources. Terminals can, however, contribute to environmental improvement. Rail yards can serve as transition areas between noncompatible land uses. Union freight and passenger stations reduce the number of structures and the amount of street congestion from excess auto and truck movements. Underground parking garages may help sustain areas of gardened beauty in urban centres, and street level parking lots can be landscaped to provide an attractive open area amid city buildings. The need is for foresight and a resolve to protect and improve the adjacent land.