Class I Briefs: NS, UP
Written by Carolina Worrell, Senior Editor
Norfolk Southern (NS) Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Ed Elkins named to Georgia Chamber of Commerce’s (Georgia Chamber) 2023 Executive Committee as Foundation Chair. Also, Union Pacific (UP) provides a rail operations update.
NS recently announced that Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Ed Elkins has been appointed to the Georgia Chamber Executive Committee and will chair the Georgia Chamber Foundation.
“The Georgia Chamber has worked to keep, grow and create jobs for more than 100 years,” NS said in a release. “Given NS’s presence in Georgia dates back to the mid-1840s, and thanks to the work of organizations like the Georgia Chamber, our company’s rail network has been able to grow and thrive as the Georgia business community has.”
“Georgia is a major logistics and transportation hub in the Southeast and a key global connection point for our customers to the rest of the world,” said Elkins. “When we moved our headquarter operation to Atlanta, we committed to accelerating the state’s goals in technology, infrastructure, workforce, sustainability and more. On behalf of NS, I look forward to working with fellow members on the Georgia Executive Committee to enhance our home state’s reputation as a top destination to do business.”
UP on Jan. 11 released an update on weather-related impacts to the Class I’s network stating that it will continue temporary embargos in the Midwest and California as a result.
In the Midwest, the temporary permit weather embargo for recent severe weather events and arctic temperatures that is impacting the railroad’s operations across Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin remains in place, UP said. Although incremental progress has been made in reducing congestion and increasing velocity across the region, UP says it is seeing longer than anticipated recovery “due to the magnitude of the prior weather impacts along with weather that continued through last week and the residual impact on the area.”
According to UP, as the railroad continues its service recovery plan, it will be continuing the embargo for an estimated 14 days. UP says it will continue to carefully review and consider customer circumstances while issuing permits during this recovery period. Permits will continue to be issued, as needed, to protect critical supply chains. Requests for permits should be submitted through Case Management (user ID and password required).
In California, heavy rain and snowfall continue through much of the state. Flooding throughout northern California has produced isolated embargos in the Oakland and Sacramento areas, UP said. A bridge foundation washout between Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo is impacting the railroad’s operations through that area and the Class I expects the bridge to be out of service for up to two weeks. “Our operations team is working on alternate routing for impacted shipments,” UP said.
