Competition Between North American Inland Waterways

The US Government recently announced an allocation of US$80-billion to upgrade and improve American inland waterways. Major changes are underway in the world of international freight transportation that will impact on domestic long-distance transportation across North America. An enlarged Panama Canal will transit larger ‘post-Panamax’ ships that will sail to ports such as the Port of New Orleans and a new super-port at the Strait of Canso in Canada. The proximity of the larger canal to the Port of New Orleans enhances future prospects for an upgraded inland waterway system.

Railway ‘Unit-Trains’:

The impending arrival of super-ships at domestic super-ports will warrant significant changes in inland waterway, railway and truck transportation so as to maintain system efficiency. Railways and inland waterways are poised to improve their operational efficiency and increase the intermodal competition between them. Long ago, the railways perfected the operation of extended-length ‘unit-trains’ with remotely controlled locomotives being placed throughout super length trains that pass through the Canadian Rocky Mountains and that originate from the coalfields of Wyoming.

CN Rail has begun to place locomotives both at the front and middle of some long trains that operate in Central Canada. Fully laden ‘post-Panamax’ ships are too deep to sail the Lower St Lawrence River and will have to unload at the Canso super-port. CN Rail owns multiple single-track rail lines between Canso super-port and Montreal. There is scope for CN Rail to operate ‘unit-trains’ along these rail lines and carry up to 1,000-containers instead of 300-containers, for all or part of the journey. In the USA, there may be scope for railways to operate extended length ‘unit trains’ to the Port of New Orleans.

COB Learning Curve:

Extended length ‘unit-trains’ are competitive against inland waterway transportation in terms of transportation cost. Over the past 25-years, research staff from several universities (Texas, Mississippi, Arkansas, Minnesota and Michigan State) have authored research papers and reports on inland water transportation, including the development of container-on-barge (COB) transportation along American inland and coastal waterways. During the early years of COB service, a succession of barge owners/operators went through a ‘learning curve’ that included multiple service failures in developing a market for COB service.

Seaway/Mississippi Competition:

The St Lawrence Seaway and Mississippi systems compete with each other in terms of connecting customers located around the Great Lakes to an ocean port. Single barge-loads of bulk freight that originating from around the Great Lakes region would become part of a barge tow that will sail south on the Mississippi to the Port of New Orleans, at some 50% the cost-per-ton-mile of sending the shipment along the Seaway. The Mississippi carries over 300-million short tons annually to/from ocean ports while the Seaway carries some 38-million short tones, a ratio of 8 to 1.

Most of the world trade moves in containers and COB transportation has been growing along inland waterways. The Seaway carries containers mainly to Lake Ontario ports, with relative few containers being carried upstream on the Great Lakes. It is likely that part of the US$80-billion allocated to improve waterways could lengthen several lock basins along with the Mississippi and install side reservoirs to save 50% of the water needed to transit tows of 18 to 24-barges (up from 15-barges) sailing in opposite directions. Such modification would increase system capacity and reduce transportation costs.

Market Niches:

The location of the Port of New Orleans along with its ability to berth ‘post-Panamax’ ships along with its proximity to the Panama Canal, provides easy access to major east and west coast South American ports as well as several Far Eastern Asian ports (Shanghai, Seoul, Tokyo, Taipei, Manila and Hong Kong). It enhances the economics of operating (extended length) barges tows along the Mississippi-Missouri-Ohio River navigable waterways.

The proximity of the Strait of Canso ‘super-port’ and the Lower St Lawrence River to Western European ports and through the Suez Canal to the Middle East, Gulf States and India enhances future prospects for the new port. The future success of and future business prospects for the St Lawrence Seaway will partly depend on the success of the new ‘super-port’ that will initially depend on intermodal maritime-rail transfers of containers.

Ocean Waves and Barges:

The introduction of ‘post-Panamax’ ships to Canso ‘super-port’ provides future interconnecting opportunities for inland waterway transportation operators. Energetic waves on the Gulf of Mexico occur at the mouth of the Mississippi near the Port of New Orleans and frequently swamp the lower level of containers aboard barges sailing between the Port and the river mouth. Smaller and less energetic ocean waves occur in the western region of the partially enclosed Gulf of St Lawrence, easing possible future barge tow operation using ‘unrestricted’ hulls, on the navigation route between Canso super-port and the mouth of the Lower St Lawrence River.

Sailing Upstream:

The first 1,000-miles up the Mississippi River from the Port of New Orleans and the first 900-miles between Canso super-port and the Port of Montreal are free from navigation locks, allowing passage for extended length, wide-beam barge tows. The deeper river draft and 120-ft air draft between Canso super-port and Montreal allows passage to larger sizes of barges that carry higher payload than Mississippi barge sizes and ought to give the Canadian waterway a competitive edge. Automated navigation technology from Autonav may assist in navigating super barge tows along both the Lower St Lawrence River and Lower Mississippi River.

While en route to Port of Montreal, automated navigation technology may uncouple barges from the rear of select barge tows, near select ports and including ports located north of Montreal. The main tows would be disassembled near the Port of Montreal and depending on the length of the Seaway locks, barges would be reassigned either to the Port of Montreal or sailed upstream. Certain ports located along the Lower St Lawrence River could gain access to cost-competitive barge transportation following the completion of Canso super-port.

Seaway Issues:

If Seaway lock lengths remains unchanged, it may only be feasible for tugs to push and navigate tows of 6 x Mississippi size barges coupled in 3-lengthwise pairs to sail upstream to ports on Lake St Francis. There may be scope for remotely controlled tugs to each push and navigate a ‘Seawaymax’ size barge that features with a forward control bridge above the bow, through existing length Seaway locks and to the Port of Ogdensburg NY and Lake Ontario ports at Oswego NY, Hamilton ON, Toronto ON and Oshawa ON.

Some 75% of bulk freight ship transportation moves internally on the Upper Great Lakes and has been cost-competitive against the railways for decades, including against ‘unit trains’. The US/Canada overseas import/export market accounts for some 25% of the traffic along the Seaway. At present, it is possible to divert barge size bulk shipments from the Upper Great Lakes through Chicago, to the competitively priced Mississippi barge system that may be developed to reduce water usage at navigation locks to transit extended length barge tows. That future development could prompt an upgrade to the Seaway system.

Conclusions:

An up-graded inland waterway system would likely include extended length navigation locks at select locations, able to transit extended length barge tows that carry greater payload at competitive costs. The waterway may attract customers from around the Upper Great Lakes area, to send shipments at attractive rates offered on extended length barge tows that connect with ships berthed at the Port of New Orleans, that sail through the enlarged Panama Canal. Over the next decade, the Mississippi waterway system may become more competitive in terms of carrying greater payload capacity at lower rates than the Seaway.

A competitive Seaway system will need to offer competitive rates aboard extended length, tug-pushed coupled tows of ship-size barges that may transit through extended length navigation locks built between Montreal and Lake Erie. American maritime researchers are already exploring possibilities in coupled tows of 2 x ship-size barges that may carry either bulk cargo or containers, while offering savings in fuel consumption and crew requirements. The same amount of total annual tonnage may move through a more cost-competitive Seaway system, aboard fewer ships. There is the remote prospect of lower rates attracting new custom to the Seaway.

Mr. Valentine has a degree in mechanical engineering from Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada specializing in thermodynamics (energy conversion) and transportation technology. He has worked as a technical journalist for the past 10-years and has more than 2 decades of research in the transportation industry. He can be reached at [email protected].