Terminal dwell is (mostly) down across Class I railroads as service recovery continues

CHICAGO — Remarks from top railroad officials during the most recent round of earnings calls have been encouraging and analysts, without direct ties to railroads, agree. With railroads reporting its weekly performance to the Surface Transportation Board, the numbers don’t lie. As 2025 arrives, railroads have showed improvements to terminal dwell, and train speeds are flat as fluidity improves from coast to coast.

The STB data across Class I railroads analyzes weekly average terminal dwell, excluding railcars on run-through manifest trains, at each of railroads’ top 10 terminals, and across the systems.

Beginning with the western railroads and comparing the second week of December 2024 with the same week in December 2023, BNSF Railway has made the most remarkable improvements in Galesburg, Ill., cutting dwell time from 32 to 25 hours on average. With the railroad’s current average mainline train speeds at 26.7 mph, and with railcars sitting at Galesburg, Ill., for 12 fewer hours than last December, customers’ freight is moving an extra 320 miles per day, based on data.

The trend continues across eight additional terminals. Trains are idling in Barstow, Calif., and Paso, Wash., for six fewer hours, and four fewer hours in Lincoln, Neb., and Northtown, Minn., on average. There have been additional improvements between one and three hours in Kansas City, Kan., Denver, Memphis, Tenn., and Tulsa, Okla. The only outlier is Fort Worth, Texas, where terminal dwell has notched up by an average of three hours. Network wide, BNSF terminal dwells are down by one hour compared to a year ago.

At Union Pacific, seven of its top terminals are turning railcars quicker. Its Englewood, Texas, rail yard, near Houston, has cut railcar dwell by eight hours, and its second-best improvement in West Colton, Calif., is down almost four hours. Proviso Yard in Chicago has seen almost a three-hour improvement and Fort Worth, Texas, Roseville, Calif., and Santa Teresa, N.M., are all down by about an hour. Systemwide, UP dwell time is also down by about an hour.

CSX Transportation’s story is a little different. It has seen improvements in Cincinnati’s Queensgate Yard, where trains are sitting for about 25 hours, compared to 29 a year ago — a four-hour improvement. In Baltimore, the railroad has shaved one hour. But elsewhere, dwell has increased in the two-to-three-hour range across a wide swath of the network in locations like Jacksonville, Fla., Louisville, Ky., Selkirk, N.Y., Chicago, Indianapolis, Nashville, Tenn., and Toledo, Ohio. This has caused the railroad’s network wide dwell time to increase by two hours.

It’s worth recognizing that CSX has navigated severe weather this year, notably the aftermath of Hurricane Helene that wiped out 40-plus miles of railroad. And in the Florida peninsula, where CSX has the lion’s share of freight business, saw several days of delays as the railroad winded down operations in preparation for Category 4-5 hurricanes.

Norfolk Southern has seen improvements at eight terminals. Macon, Ga., has cut dwell time by 15 hours from an average of 42 to 27 hours — a 15-hour improvement. Macon, Ga., had the highest hours of dwell compared to any terminal across all Class I railroads last December. Fluidity is improving by one-to-four hours at yards in Decatur, Ill., Elkhart, Ind., Harrisburg, Pa., Chattanooga, Tenn., and Roanoke, Va. Conway, Pa., near Pittsburgh, has seen an improvement by slightly less than one hour compared to 2023. Across the network, NS terminal dwell is down by more than one hour.

Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern data still reports individually. Both railroads have reported dwell time increases, specifically KCS. Only two yards on the original KCS network have made year over year improvements. They are Baton Rouge, La., at three hours, and Beaumont, Texas, at about a half-hour. The biggest setbacks have been in Kansas City, Mo., where KCS trains are idling for 39 hours, compared to 10 hours, on average, from a year ago. This is likely attributable with either growing pains linked to the CP-KCS merger or how the data is being calculated given the now seamless hand-off between the new Canadian Pacific Kansas City. Either way, it’s likely not a broader indication of underlying operational issues.

Dwell is also up at Wylie, Texas, by eight hours, and in Shreveport, La., by about six hours. Meridian, Miss., Jackson, Miss., are up one and two hours, respectively. Laredo, Texas, is flat from a year ago at eight hours on average, as is Latanier Yard near Alexandria, La. Network wide, dwell across the original KCS system is up by almost eight hours.

At legacy Canadian Pacific rail yards in the U.S., two yards have improved cycle times. Notably, cars in Harvey, N.D., are spending 22 fewer hours there, down to 16 from 38 hours. Dwell time is down about three hours in Milwaukee. Elsewhere, it’s on the rise. La Crosse, Wis., is up from 17 to 31 hours, and Nahant Yard near Davenport, Iowa, is holding railcars for about 29 hours, up eight hours from last year. Freight is sitting longer by three to four hours in Albany, N.Y., and Bensenville, Ill., near Chicago, and a half-hour to two hours longer in Mason City, Iowa, St. Paul, Minn., Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and Glenwood, Minn. Overall, CP is holding trains across its network for about four hours longer.

Rounding out the big railroads, Canadian National is holding trains for fewer hours at six of its biggest U.S. yards. The biggest improvement is in the Gulf in Baton Rouge, La., where freight is dwelling for an average of 16 hours compared to 24 hours — an eight-hour improvement. CN has made three-hour improvements in Stevens Point, Wis., and Champaign, Ill., and by an hour or less at Fond Du Lac, Wis., and on former Illinois Central yards in Memphis, Tenn., and Jackson, Miss. CN dwell has ticked up in the one hour range in Geismar, La., and on the iron range in Proctor, Minn., and dwell is up two hours in Kirk Yard in Gary, Ind., and Markham Yard in Homewood, Ill., at 20 and 14 hour averages, respectively.

Railroads keep train speeds consistent with end of 2023

 The Class I railroads are holding the line on average train speeds across the country. BNSF, UP, CSX, CP, and CN have seen less than a 1 mph difference to average line-of-road train speeds, all reporting in the 22-to-26 mph range, led by BNSF Railway at 26.7 mph. This is respectable considering severe weather events in the east, an unexpected shift to more inbound international intermodal in the west, and labor issues in different sectors.

The standouts are NS, up 2 mph from December 2023, at 23.6 mph from 21.6, within earshot of its peers, and less than 1.5 mph behind CSX’s 25.6 mph average. KCS is averaging 24.7 mph, down from 28.2 mph, a 3.5 mph slippage from a year ago.

KCS network progress since the April 2023 merger

As noted prior, it’s important to recognize these data sets overlap when CPKC was in its infancy— just eight months into single-line operations. Railroad operations are complex without mergers and it’s prudent to look at how the legacy KCS portion of the network has performed since integrating with CP and creating CPKC.

In the 19 months since the inception of America’s new Class I railroad, between May 2023 and December 2024, CPKC has improved terminal dwell time at seven of its 10 legacy KCS terminals. Shreveport, La., is down to 37.6 hours from 44.7 — a seven-hour improvement, and the railroad has cut dwell by four hours at one of its key arteries in Laredo, Texas, as well as Wylie, Texas, and Jackson, Miss.

Dwell time is down by an hour in Beaumont, Texas, Meridian, Miss., and Baton Rouge, La. The biggest exception, which weighs down broader numbers, as previously noted in the year over year comparisons, is the crucial interchange point in Kansas City, Mo., where dwell is up 16 hours since the merger at 39 hours versus 22 hours.

And train speeds on CP’s legacy network are on-par since before the merger, despite new cross-border freight traffic and the absorption of KCS equipment and a change in overall operations. This is commendable.

Cleaner data in 2025 will provide better insights into CPKC’s performance as North America’s only single-line rail network linking an entire continent from Canada, through the U.S., and into Mexico.