BNSF Railway, Norfolk Southern, and the Northwest Seaport Alliance have teamed up to offer faster international intermodal service to inland points from the ports in Seattle and Tacoma.
The new service, they announced yesterday, will cut three days from existing transit times for traffic from the Pacific Northwest destined to and through Chicago.
Port terminals will build trains in less than two days of on-dock dwell, with enough density to allow the trains to serve Chicago and destinations on Norfolk Southern in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
BNSF and NS will deliver all interchange traffic to one Chicago location, NS-Ashland, and make a single crew swap.
“This service product collaboration was an outcome of listening to our joint customers, who emphasized the desire to use more rail, but would need to also reduce inventory carrying and total landed transportation costs out of their networks in 2025,” Jon Gabriel, BNSF’s group vice president of consumer products, said in a statement. “We are proud to deliver a solution that accomplishes these goals.”
The Seattle/Tacoma port complex reported the lowest rail dwell in the country thus far this year as a result of operational changes emphasizing rail loading.
The port has been regaining market share that it has lost to Vancouver and Prince Rupert, British Columbia, over the past two decades. The Canadian West Coast ports have become gateways to Chicago via Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Kansas City, but lost some of their luster amid labor unrest at ports and both railways over the past two years.
Shippers diverted their container traffic back to U.S. West Coast ports, with Seattle/Tacoma being a major beneficiary of the shift. Last year the port complex handled 12.3% more TEUs, or twenty-foot equivalents, the standard measure of international containers.
“The Northwest Seaport Alliance is excited to partner with BNSF and NS to offer this industry-leading service for shippers utilizing our gateway,” NWSA CEO John Wolfe said in a statement. “This is an example of how through partnership and innovative efforts we can respond to the needs of shippers and deliver best-in-class service for our customers.”
With reduced on-dock dwell time and faster transit time, the total time from ship to Chicago is six days, a three-day reduction that makes the service the fastest from any Pacific Northwest gateway in North America, the railroads and port said.
“At Norfolk Southern, we’re focused on delivering smart, customer-centric solutions — and this enhanced service from the Pacific Northwest to the Midwest is exactly that,” said Shawn Tureman, vice president intermodal automotive. “By collaborating with BNSF and the Northwest Seaport Alliance, we’re offering a faster, more reliable rail option that helps shippers reduce transit time, cut costs, and streamline supply chains heading into 2025 and beyond.”
BNSF’s 4,400 hp GE ET44C4 locomotive leading an intermodal freight train graces Bill Stephens’ stylish photo…
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The Empire Builder makes this trip in 2 days plus.
Why does this so-called “hotshot” take 6 days?
It’s six days from ship to Chicago. So factoring in the two days of on-dock dwell while they build the trains, that’s about four days of travel time. And remember that freight trains are much heavier and longer than Amtrak, and have to hold for Amtrak (and sometimes other trains) to go by Four days, while long, is pretty good.