COAL TRANSPORTATION PRACTICES AND EQUIPMENT REQUIREMENTS TO 1985

A study was conducted to determine the amount of transportation equipment required to move 1.2 billion tons of coal in 1985. The Federal Bureau of Mines has investigated a majority of the various practices associated with coal transportation and has gathered information on the regional origin-destination patterns, methods of movement, equipment stocks, rate structures, and operational capacities of the most important modes of coal haulage currently in use. Models employing this information were developed to establish the origin-destination pattern for 1985 coal shipments, estimate practical tonnage capacities for selected coal hauling rivers, develop modal shares for both unconstrained (by river capacity) and constrained cases, and present a range of coal transportation equipment requirements for given sets of constraints. Projected transportation shares for rail ranged from 63.7 to 72.3 percent, and for river, from 8.8 to 16.4 percent. Other coal transportation modes (truck, conveyer, Great Lakes, and tidewater) are expected to retain their historic shares of coal traffic. Equipment estimates were made for 1985 rail and water transportation based on 1973 average and best practice. Average practice estimates ranged from 675,000 to 710,000 hopper cars (100-ton) and 3.100 to 5,940 barges 1,400-ton equivalent). Best practice estimates ranged from 126,000 to 142,000 hopper cars and 1,750 to 3,450 barges. Full implementation of 1973 best practice by 1985 is unlikely.

• Corporate Authors:

  Bureau of Mines

  C Street Between 18th and 19th Streets, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20241
• Authors:
  • Larwood, G M
  • Benson, D C
• Publication Date: 1976

Media Info

• Features: References;
• Pagination: 90 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Barges; Bulk cargo; Coal; Coal industry; Freight traffic; Inland waterways traffic; Modal analysis; Modal split; Slurry; Transportation; Water traffic; Water transportation
• Old TRIS Terms: Barge traffic; Bulk coal; Slurry transportation; Waterway transportation
• Subject Areas: Operations and Traffic Management; Transportation (General); Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00157611
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Bureau of Mines
• Report/Paper Numbers: Info Circular 8706
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Sep 20 1977 12:00AM