BNSF Railway officials said Thursday that they were holding all New Orleans-bound trains from moving into the area.
“Our operations teams are working with other carriers to identify alternate gateways unaffected by this storm to minimize disruptions to interchange traffic as much as possible,” say railroad officials, who said they were also in contact with local, state, and federal emergency agencies.
Canadian National was working to detour traffic around the New Orleans area.
“Precautionary actions are being taken to protect infrastructure, and rail equipment is being re-positioned away from the low lying areas” company officials say, noting that the railroad was working with customers in the storm area to identify switching needs. CN issued an embargo on traffic inbound to the New Orleans Public Belt Railway “in an effort to try and mitigate surplus of traffic which would impact CN’s local service.”
NOPB, owned by the Port of New Orleans, shut down Thursday evening. In addition to switching the port, NOPB connects with BNSF, CN, Union Pacific, Norfolk Southern, Kansas City Southern, and CSX Transportation.
Forecast to make landfall by tonight, July 12, the storm brings the threat of dumping more than 20 inches of rain on the region.
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