Rail News

Although the COVID-19 pandemic completely upended prior expectations for 2020, it also accelerated existing trends that every shipper, carrier, and third-party logistics provider should be watching in 2021.

Because asset owners can’t economically invest in excess capacity for volumes that may never materialize, the risk of supply chain disruption caused by external shocks, especially surprise surges in demand, likely will never go away.

Carriers believe new Indian rail incentives, coupled with the recent lifting of a 14-day quarantine for incoming Chinese vessels, will have a positive impact on inventory flow.

Building a presence in the inland intermodal hub of Duisport will give Maersk direct access to strategic river and rail services in the heart of Europe.

BNSF Railway is limiting the amount of containers its partners can bring into a terminal in Southern California and on certain Chicago lanes due to volumes that usually tail off after Thanksgiving but have stayed elevated this year.

Norfolk Southern has shut the gates on containers and trailers entering its 63rd Street terminal in Chicago to five Northeast locations due to a crush of volume, likely sending the loads to full truckload.

The broad reach of the domestic intermodal improvement is an encouraging sign, indicating that Q3 gains may have relied less on transloading and imports than might have been expected.

Intermodal executives want to address the chronic congestion issues in 2020 with railroads and BCOs, but universally accepted solutions are hard to come by.

Shippers forced out of air and ocean trades by limited space and high rates are turning to overland transport from China to Europe, but the high demand is stoking capacity and equipment issues.

JOC’s Intermodal Savings Index fell on the spot market and rose on the contract market in the third quarter, a trend that is likely to persist through the end of 2020.

US shippers are opening contract talks early, extending existing agreements, and seeking short-term contracts to hedge against expected 2021 rate increases.

Union Pacific Railroad says service is now fluid on its intermodal network after the “bumpiness” experienced over the summer; intermodal marketing companies, however, dispute that.

Union Pacific Railroad will raise the surcharge on small shippers to $1,000 on excess contract cargo beginning Oct. 25, a signal that rail-owned containers remain in short supply on the West Coast.

Limited air cargo capacity and high ocean load factors are keeping demand elevated on the overland rail network between China and Europe.

The rail agreement between Canadian Pacific and Maersk follows the mid-September announcement that the two companies will build and operate a transload and distribution facility at CP’s existing terminal in Vancouver.

Two recent studies show how cheaper rail prices are helping drive port routing changes, and a new JOC analysis of data from the Intermodal Association of North America reveals how significant the shift has been in just five years.

Agricultural shippers in North Dakota will have a new service to the ports of Seattle and Tacoma to export products overseas, which the state’s governor calls a game-changer.

This year’s peak season promises to be tumultuous, but 2021 could be just as difficult for shippers as 2020.

Domestic intermodal volumes already elevated compared with a year ago and there are signs that international intermodal is on the upswing too.

As container volume has picked up, trucking and logistics executives say that CSX’s domestic intermodal service has become unreliable in two key southeast US rail ramps.

BNSF has named Kathryn Farmer, who has been with the western railroad for 28 years, as its new CEO effective Jan. 1, 2021. She will become the first female CEO of a North American Class I railroad.

The surge in domestic intermodal has spread from Los Angeles to Oakland-Lathrop and Union Pacific will raise surcharges on shippers to ensure equipment is available for core customers.

Demand for rail services between China and Europe has risen sharply since COVID-19 slashed air and ocean capacity, with bottlenecks developing at key border crossings.

When it comes to the Inland Point Intermodal market, it’s a 40-foot world; thus far in 2020, 40-foot containers comprise just over three out of every four IPI revenue moves.

UP will raise surcharges again out of Los Angeles on all shippers, as previous rate increases have been ineffective in slowing volumes that threaten to overwhelm the railroad’s network.

Shippers will have to plan their supply chains more carefully in Denver and Chicago because Union Pacific Railroad will no longer accept containers more than two days before their scheduled departure due to an onslaught of intermodal volume.

Union Pacific Railroad will institute a $500 surcharge on excess cargo for all shippers in Seattle to divert as many assets to Los Angeles as possible amid record-breaking cargo spikes in Southern California.

For the third time this month, Union Pacific has increased spot rates and its peak season surcharge in Los Angeles, raising prices on small shippers to record levels and likely pushing excess cargo back to trucking.

Freight forwarders in the US Midwest and Eastern Canada fear the rail problems plaguing Vancouver could quickly result in excessive delays in delivering containers to the eastern half of the continent.

Seeing the long-term decline in carload volumes tied to North American industrial activity, CN is trying to tie itself closer to supply chains feeding the retail and service industries.

A federal regulatory change will safely expedite the training process and address the pressing national need for more chassis mechanics, according to the Intermodal Association of North America.

NFI intermodal and its truck brokerage businesses will expand following logistics unit purchases from CAI International.

The new $1,500 rate hike by UP is on top of a $500 increase announced earlier this month on California lanes, effectively raising intermodal spot rates above trucking pricing.

Despite optimism that BNSF Railway’s congestion may ease, intermodal marketing companies expect demand to be high and equipment dislocations to persist through October in California.

While Indian rail operators have a long way to go to sufficiently meet the bargains BCOs are seeking to permanently migrate away from their traditional mode of transport, those gaps seem to be narrowing.

Intermodal volume, rates, and savings have been on a rollercoaster this year, surging this summer to levels higher than a year ago after steep declines this spring during the height of the pandemic.

An important lesson to be gained is the role of TOFC as intermodal surge capacity: While there is a finite number of domestic containers in the North American fleet, there are, for all practical purposes, an infinite number of trailers available.

In expanding the surcharge to all shippers, UP cited “a significant increase in demand for container capacity across the system” that is expected to “increase further in the coming weeks.”

Small shippers will have to pay a $500 surcharge on excess cargo on Union Pacific, as both western US Class I railroads struggle to handle the surge in volume out of Los Angeles.

A containerized train carrying 50 TEU from India reached Bangladesh’s Benapole port on Sunday, opening a new avenue for trade between the two countries that will cut time and costs.