The purpose of this study was to determine the savings which would result from the merger of less than carload freight operations, excluding savings in facilities and forces which have been included in Study I, Common Points.
This study is based on the discontinuance of the present Lackawanna transfer facility at Scranton, and the handling of present tons and cars at the Erie house at Hornell.
Merger would permit the consolidation of cars, resulting in heavier loading and savings in cars, car days and per diem. Since the information required to determine the extent to which LCL cars would be consolidated was not available from the records ordinarily kept, a special study was made for the test week of March 3-9, 1957, a period deemed typical of normal operations.
The LCL freight actually handled during the test week was analyzed by origin and destination, both as to cars, and shipments within each car, and a sufficient number of consolidated cars were set up to common destinations to handle all the freight offered each day. A maximum of six tons of freight per car was used, and if additional tonnage was shipped that day, an additional car was set up to handle it. The number of cars required for the merged operation were compared with existing operations in order to determine the savings. Freight car days were estimated at four for each car saved based on inspection of the origin and destination of the cars involved.
It was estimated that 63,024 per them car days would be saved and credit for this saving was taken in Study VII-F.
