OMAHA, Neb. — Union Pacific has tightened its domestic intermodal schedules between the Los Angeles Basin and Chicago by two days, and now offers three-day transit time that is competitive with team driver truck service.
“In an effort to better serve our customers and simultaneously penetrate volume moving over the road, Union Pacific is pleased to share that we have implemented a new ‘Z’ train service pair between the Los Angeles Basin and the Chicago metroplex,” the railroad said in a May 1 customer announcement.
The new daily service links the City of Industry terminal in Southern California to Global 2 in Northlake, Ill.
“We are delivering the service we sold to our customers — and we’re now able to do it faster,” CEO Jim Vena said in a statement today. “Our railroad offers 70-mph service, allowing us to compete for business, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions up to 75% for our customers.”
Executives from Schneider National, one of UP’s truckload domestic intermodal customers, praised the faster service on the company’s earnings call yesterday.
“We’re really excited about the fact that we have an improvement in transit time on the largest corridor. So we’re going from a position where we were 24 hours behind the competing transit to now we’re 24 hours faster than the competing transit,” said James Filter, Schneider’s group president of transportation and logistics. “So we think we have an opportunity to continue to grow there. We feel really good about that.”
Filter also praised capacity expansions that UP has made at the Inland Empire terminal in Fontana, Calif., which handles imported goods that have been transloaded into domestic containers. “There is nothing constricting us from growing that really important corridor,” Filter says.
The new service from LATC includes faster steel wheel interchanges with CSX and Norfolk Southern for containers bound for destinations in the Ohio Valley and Northeast. In addition, the westbound service from Global 2 to the City of Industry and Inland Empire Intermodal Terminal now includes Z train service.
“We are excited about this new product, which is part of our continuing effort to find new ways to meet our customers’ needs, while removing trucks off our nation’s highways and providing a consistent, reliable product,” said Kenny Rocker, UP’s executive vice president of marketing and sales.
In November, Vena told an investor conference that the railroad was considering routes where it can cut transit times to be more competitive with trucks and other railroads. Since becoming CEO in August 2023, Vena has touted UP’s ability to run premium traffic at 70 mph.
Too bad these trains won’t use the Edelstein Connection, but there is always a risk BNSF’s Transcon will slow their journey.
How many cars are they going operate these trains with shorter trains that can duck in and out of sidings or long ones that have increased chances of breakdowns.?
Global II is on the former CNW. The article talks about service between Chicago and Los Angeles, and refers to Global II s the Chicago terminal. With that clear information, it then appears to read that they are going to use the Overland Route to Ogden – the original CNW and UP – and then UP to Los Angeles, which is via the former Los Angeles & Salt Lake Route. On that routing the only trackage rights is on the BNSF between Daggett, CA where the UP connects to the BNSF Southern Transcon at Daggett Junction and San Bernardino, CA.
They do not mention 72 hour service to California via the former SP or WP to Oakland, nor over Tehachapi Pass to the California Central Valley.
Good for UP for using their capacity on the Overland Route and former Los Angeles & Salt Lake to try to compete with team truckers.
I get a kick out of some of the speculation on here regarding speeds. Just because Vena says the railroad has 70mph speeds doesnt mean the trains run end to end at 70mph. When when the railroads talk about service it is usually cut off to availabilty. Think about it guys. Use some common sense here. And why all of this talk of The Overland Route, Cajon and, Tehachapi of all places. I have looked at the schedule for both trains. They arent running via the Overland or Cajon. And no, they are not running via the BNSF from G4 to KC since the trains are running out of G2. I will leave the further speculation to you guys. But what do I know, I have only been at this 30yrs.
IIRC anything running to, and from G2, would be going via Des Moines..
Excuse me. Not Des Moines, but Nevada, IA..
Oh come on. Vena wasn’t quoted as saying it was 70mph sustained. “70mph” is just marketing hype.
IIRC, the Super Chief and City of Los Angeles covered the approximately 2,200 miles between Chicago and LA in 39 3/4 hours per timetable, which equates to something like a 55mph average speed.
Assuming this speedy new Z train accomplishes a “three-day transit time” of 72 hours, then the Z will average out at about 30mph. (I believe the limit for freights in Cajon Pass is 40mph, with possibly a couple of 35mph location.)
Thank you Gary.
“Our railroad offers 70-mph service”
From Los Angeles to Chicago…through the Cajon Pass? Good flapping luck with that 70mph through THAT pass.
How c take five days with 70 mph running from Southern California Chicao?
The other part of the story is Port of LA/Long Beach have been investing into their dockside rail capabilities to the tune of $1-2 billion on top of expanding ability to service the biggest of the biggest containerships and Panama Canal struggling with drought, water.
Fixing the Broadway Street bridge in St Louis helps a lot. Now they can stream line loads up the Alton or the C&EI routes.
This very good news! In a recent interview Mr. Vena proudly said his railroad (and BNSF) were the only roads with 70 mph territory for freight.
The so-called Overland Route is virtually all Union Pacific. But the Golden State Route uses the former Santa Fe between Kansas City and the Chicago area. UPRR Global IV is adjacent to BNSF Logistics Park Chicago.
Good to see Union Pacific has finally gotten off its dead butt and joined the real world of multimodal competition.
No, these UPS trains have direct access via the old WP and SP lines East and West through Ogden and Salt Lake Utah, gained by UP through these mergers, and run through the Overland route or the Central Corridor, which ever proves faster. The only BNSF trackage rights section is the district between Daggett, CA to the LA Basin via Cajon Pass/San Bernadino which has been in service since before the BNSF merger.
Still, the UP would have to make 70mph through Tehachapi….which will not happen. And UP does have its own trackage through Cajon pass, via the acquisition of the SP in 1996.
Are these UP Z trains using BNSF trackage rights?