Rail News

Union Pacific’s Inland Empire Intermodal Terminal that will open in the second quarter will allow the railroad to handle increased domestic freight moving to the eastern half of the US.

The South Carolina Ports Authority will expand Inland Port Greer, using a federal grant to add more space to the container yard, the chassis yard, and build new facilities for terminal operations.

Union Pacific Railroad will open a transload facility adjacent to a Chicago-area container terminal to meet rising demand for containerized agricultural exports amid ocean capacity challenges.

Canadian National subsidiary Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad (B&LE) is taking the US Surface Transportation Board to court over its refusal to give unconditional approval of a track sale CN argues would allow for faster intermodal service.

Record cargo volumes have overwhelmed the chassis supply in major inland hubs like Dallas, Chicago, Memphis, and Kansas City, making it all but impossible for shippers to retrieve containers from so-called wheeled facilities.

A group of Memphis shippers and truckers want the US Surface Transportation Board to instruct railroads to stop charging storage fees until a chassis shortage is resolved.

Canadian National’s $33.7 billion bid for Kansas City Southern would provide intermodal shippers some key alternatives to KCS’s proposed merger with Canadian Pacific, and possibly ignite a bidding war.

Intermodal service in Kansas City is a “complete mess,” according to three cargo owners, with an import surge causing chassis shortages and restrictions on what containers can be picked up or dropped off at rail terminals.

Domestic intermodal shippers in California will be subject to a surcharge of $1,000 to $1,500 on excess contract cargo beginning Apr. 25, the first time Union Pacific has instituted such a peak-season fee before the summer.

MSC has thrown its hat into the Asia-Europe rail ring, offering an intermodal connection that mirrors the sea-air service launched by Maersk two years ago.

Shippers can save more money than ever before on intermodal, if they could find equipment and draymen to move their cargo to and from rail terminals amid scarce supply of both.

The Port of Mobile says a proposed move to open a Gulf Coast rail track to passenger service would hurt its intermodal business.

Container shippers using Norfolk Southern’s service for inland rail moves have been seeing major delays from US East Coast ports.

North American shippers are cautiously optimistic about the potential benefits of a Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern merger, but urge the Surface Transportation Board to fully investigate the transaction rather than rush through the approval process.

Canadian Pacific believes there will be intermodal growth opportunities if a merger with Kansas City Southern is approved, but there are challenges to overcome to get shippers to use the new available lanes between Mexico, the US Midwest, and Eastern Canada.

Union Pacific is co-developing the first intermodal terminal in Idaho which will connect the state’s ag shippers to the Pacific Northwest ports.

Exporters and trucking companies are battling delays on Norfolk Southern and CSX Transportation in Memphis, causing loaded containers going to Charleston and Savannah to idle for days.

If approved by regulators, the planned merger of Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern railways would offer cargo owners a single network straddling the largest global trade bloc.

Strongly growing volume on China-Europe rail is causing surprisingly few major delays as forwarders find new routes around potential choke points on the network.

UP will assess a first-ever March surcharge of $250 on “low-volume shippers” in California effective March 21, just days after an announcement that will kick more US shippers into that category.

With the signing of NAFTA and, more recently, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), the flow of goods across the US-Mexico border would appear ripe for intermodal participation, but data indicates the market remains in its infancy.

A chassis shortage has slowed the supply chain since storms hit Texas nearly three weeks ago, and it could be another couple weeks before cargo slows return to normal.

Texas is the epicenter of supply-chain damage caused by Winter Storm Uri, but the disruption is being felt nationwide. Mexican imports by truck may be delayed for days.

Union Pacific Railroad is shutting down virtually all business across its intermodal network for 72 hours because of snow and ice in the Pacific Northwest, Midwest, and even as far south as Texas.

A growing gap between inventory and sales in many US business sectors is projected to drive replenishment, expedited shipping, and high levels of imports for months to come.

As cost-conscious India shippers seek “more for less,” value-added services have begun to occupy center stage in freight contract negotiations, including bespoke intermodal services.

The problem with a later peak week is that it leaves precious little room for recovery; when things go wrong or the unexpected occurs, the system appears not to be agile enough to avoid stock-outs and disappointment.

Shippers may see intermodal savings evaporate in the first quarter if rail contracts rise more than 10 percent and spot truck rates continue to cool off and pressure truck contracts.

Maersk has teamed up with intermodal rail giant Container Corporation of India to offer block train movement from Kolkata to Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust to feed the carrier’s weekly long-haul sailings out of the busy public harbor.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services warns customers that intermodal prices will rise more than 10 percent in some US markets to recoup costs of restoring fluidity to the network and to support growth.

Rising industrial freight volumes will keep pressure on truckload capacity and pricing in 2021, even if demand for goods peaks, according to FTR Transport Intelligence analysts.

Union Pacific Railroad’s decision to rescind record-breaking surcharges on the West Coast beginning Jan. 17 will lower prices for importers moving cargo through Los Angeles.

The China-Europe rail network is creaking under the same space and equipment shortages, and soaring rate levels, that are disrupting air and ocean markets.

Buoyed by rail upgrades, intermodal haulers in India are hoping to convince traditional road shippers to switch to rail, accelerating a modal shift critical to meeting government targets on cargo dwell times.

Intermodal should have a good year in 2021, but its long-run fundamentals that were in place pre-pandemic have not been significantly altered.

Intermodal marketing company (IMC) executives say US intermodal rates charged to shippers will rise between 3 and 10 percent in major lanes and between 3 and 5 percent in secondary lanes this year.

DCLI ran out of chassis last week in Chicago, and cargo owners are frustrated because Union Pacific will not release their containers to draymen with trucker-owned chassis.

A new law that requires the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to develop a plan to use X-rays or similar technology to scan all cars, trucks, and freight trains entering the country could cause a flare up of chronic congestion issues at the southern border.

Logistics managers that saw their organization's supply chains disrupted and transportation budgets blown out of the water in 2020 will be at the epicenter of make-or-break decisions in the coming year.

Truckers are taking longer to get through terminals in Chicago because of the surge in cargo and changes in stacking containers with some railroads.