Can anyone verify that if the trains do not run in U.S. for three days there will be no food on store shelves

Question

I heard this on the news, documentry or something years ago, but can't find any reference to verify this comment?

After four answers, the consensus is trucks now are the answer if trains are out. I wonder how much trains are relied upon for truck diesel fuel and how many trains are off loaded onto trucks or silos first before their journeys, especially grain, corn and other semi-perishables.

Just found this on www
U.S. Office of Technology
Assessment landmark 1994 study
ton-miles share for freight transportation within the U.S.:


Railroad 30%
Truck 30%
Barge/ship 24%
Pipeline 16%
Air < 1%

Answer 1

I agree that trains are not used as in the past to move food, BUT the previous people that answered don´t know too much about INTERMODAL transport. That is: you put trailers on trains OR containers on trains. And when the train arrives to the station, they unload trailers or containers and they move them to its destination by road... Obviously I think that the question cannot be verified easy, BUT if US has no trains, it will collapse for a lot of reasons (no coal to power stations, no goods for shipping at the docks, etc, etc) and trucks CANNOT replace trains.
AND you must take into account the increase of: pollution, fuel consumption, accidents, congestion, etc.

Answer 2

Most of the shipping for food is done with trucks. My dad use to be an engineer for the train, and a lot of the stuff that they transported was either bulky, such as car parts, or non food items. When I was a kid, there use to be a train that would go to the car ferries every day. Now most of the track is pulled up, and I rarely see a train any more.

Most stores now days don't have a train track going to their back loading dock. Everything arrives by truck.
I know that many if not all of the Wal-mart stores in Michigan were built after the train tracks were removed or was too new to ever been built near a track, and all of their merchandise arrives by truck.
After food is processed it is stored in warehouses. When a store puts in a order, Spartan or Kroger or whatever company you want, will fill the store's order by putting the food on pallets. The order is then shrink wrapped, which means that plastic goes around the pallet to keep all of the merchandise together. The frozen or cold foods is behind a wall inside the truck that helps keep the cold in, then the can goods and the packaged items are loaded in the back end of the truck.

Some food arrives from other countries from ships. I have seen winter squash from Africa, apple juice from South America, and canned shrimp from Asia.

Don't worry about running out of food if the trains stop. The trucks deliver to each and every store. Trains were big in the 1960's but aren't used as much now.

Answer 3

WOW !!! How old was the documentary? Yes back when the American public relied on the rails for transportation like the 40's and 50's But with the advent of the interstate highway system started by Eisenhower now amost everything perishable moves by truck. In fact ,with the deregulation of the trucking industry back in the late 70's there are now as many big rigs on the interstates as cars

Answer 4

I would have to say if trains stopped for three days that would not empty the shelves.
Yes it would have an affect on the amount of things you could find in the stores. But most companies have warehouses that have extra stock in them so this does not happen.

As for walmart they gave BNSF an award for being the number one rail company shipping items for them. It would probably hurt walmart and alot of other retail stores if it went past 3 days.

I also know that trucking hauls alot of things but if you look at a train over a hundred cars long it equals what 300 trucks could haul.

Answer 5

What you don't realize is the trains carry the ingredients to the places that make the food. Example: Kiamichi Railroad in my town takes different ingredients to Campbells soup. So trains are relied on heavily BUT I don't know about 3 days... My family would be hungry if trains didn't run for three days.. LOL

Answer 6

Three days? Not likely. If the public were made aware ahead of time that supplies would be cut off - very likely!

Answer 7

TRUCKS