Union Pacific plans to reopen all intermodal terminals by Friday after closing them earlier this week because of the impacts of winter storms across the nation. In a customer advisory posted Thursday afternoon, the railroad said the Chicago area continued to work through significant snow removal, and additional snowfall in the Little Rock and Pine Bluff, Ark., as well as ice in eastern Texas and northern Louisiana, continued to affect operations. UP stopped accepting intermodal shipments at most intermodal facilities on Tuesday [see “Union Pacific shuts down intermodal network …,” Trains News Wire, Feb. 16, 2021].
The railroad also warned on Wednesday that major power outages in Texas were causing cascading operational problems, but millions of customers had power restored on Thursday, leaving fewer than 500,000 customers awaiting restoration of service.
In updates from other railroads:
Norfolk Southern: The railroad stopped accepting inbound international intermodal shipments at its Landers facility in Chicago at 5 p.m. Thursday for Detroit and six East Coast locations, citing the continued impact of weather in the Midwest. The railroad had stopped accepting domestic shipments to Chicago-area terminals from a number of locations on Wednesday. At an investor conference Wednesday, NS Chief Marketing Officer Alan Shaw said that NS intermodal trains and intermodal terminals continued to operate. But street operations ground to a halt due to snow and ice. NS also stopped accepting intermodal shipments interchanging to Kansas City Southern through Merdian, Miss., and to Union Pacific at Memphis.
Kansas City Southern: Informed customers on Wednesday that power outages in the Houston, Corpus Christi, and Dallas areas had led to significant impacts on operations, and to allow for delays until resulting backlogs can be alleviated in both Mexico and the United States.
CSX Transportation: Has not provided an updated weather advisory since Monday, but chief financial officer Kevin Boone told an investor conference Wednesday that the Chicago gateway was struggling, as it does during major storms and with record low temperatures. Its international terminals remained open.
