Intermodal, crude lead AAR volumes higher in September
September’s change of seasons didn’t cool off the year-long rise in U.S. rail freight commodities and intermodal traffic.
September’s change of seasons didn’t cool off the year-long rise in U.S. rail freight commodities and intermodal traffic.
BNSF and CSX will launch a container-only direct-rail domestic and international intermodal service between Los Angeles and CSX’s Northwest Ohio Intermodal Terminal in North Baltimore, Ohio, on Oct. 29, 2018. The new service will run eastbound and westbound with departure offerings five days per week in each direction.
A flood of controversy is swirling around CSX following media reports blaming the railroad for catastrophic flooding in Lumberton, N.C., during Hurricane Florence, which inundated much of the state’s low-lying coastal areas.
The state of Georgia will spend $92 million to double the Port of Savannah’s annual rail capacity to more than 1 million containers by 2020.
Union Pacific late on Sep. 17 (following Wall Street close of business) announced a new operating plan, “Unified Plan 2020,” that “implements Precision Scheduled Railroading principles” that were deployed over the past 20-odd years at, in order, Illinois Central, CN, Canadian Pacific and CSX by the late E. Hunter Harrison.
CSX announced a change in leadership for its Merchandise and Intermodal Sales & Marketing teams.
Growing e-commerce and the run-up to end-of-year retail sales helped intermodal shipments gain in the weekly rail freight report from the Association of American Railroads.
The peak season for intermodal traffic is fast approaching, and CSX in late July announced numerous changes to interline service, in particular, those affecting Union Pacific customers with eastbound shipments. The changes are in effect as of Sept. 17, 2018.
Another month, another milestone for surging North American rail freight with one caveat – ongoing uncertainty over U.S. trade policy.
Deep into a summer of simmering trade and economic issues, grain and petroleum continued to lead growing U.S. rail traffic for the week ending August 25.