UP Shaves Two Days Off LA-Chicago Domestic Intermodal Service
Written by Marybeth Luczak, Executive Editor
(UP Photograph)
Union Pacific (UP) on May 3 reported cutting down transit time for domestic intermodal service to three days for customers transporting goods from the Los Angeles area to the Chicago area.
The new product, which began April 28, runs daily from UP ’s intermodal terminal at Industry, Calif., 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,” UP CEO Jim Vena said. “Our railroad offers 70-mph service, allowing us to compete for business while reducing greenhouse gas emissions up to 75% for our customers.”
According to UP, the new product also includes “faster freight interchanges with other railroads for those trains bound for the Ohio Valley and northeast U.S. destinations.”
“Since opening our Inland Empire Intermodal Terminal (IEIT) in 2021, we’ve more than quadrupled the lift capacity in this strategic Southern California import distribution region,” UP Executive Vice President, Marketing and Sales Kenny Rocker told customers in an April 2 status report. “We’ve come a long way since establishing the ‘pop-up’ terminal in our West Colton rail yard. I’m excited to share that beginning yesterday [April 1] we added domestic service to our Global 2 intermodal terminal in the heart of the Chicago metro, supplementing our existing service to Global 4 in Joliet, Ill. We will also extend our interline services for IEIT to more than 20 destination markets on Norfolk Southern, CSX and Canadian National Railway.”
According to UP, the Los Angeles metro is home to one of the nation’s largest warehouse districts in the Inland Empire, and Chicago is the third largest city in the United States.
