JOC Staff | Nov 15, 2012 11:25AM EST
U.S. shippers of refrigerated and frozen goods continue to gain more rail shipment options.
Rail Logistics-Cold Train, an intermodal service that started in 2010 in the Quincy, Wash., to Chicago corridor, has expanded.
Company President Steve Lawson said shipments originating at the Pacific Northwest hub now can be delivered to Jacksonville, Atlanta, Philadelphia and Boston.
Rail Logistics-Cold Train tested the expanded service earlier this year, but had to wait to receive new equipment before it could implement it commercially.
Over the summer, the rail service company took possession of 100 domestic refrigerated containers. Lawson and other company executives will take possession of another 100 containers Nov. 15 at the BNSF railyard in San Bernardino, Calif.
For the first time in about a decade, Union Pacific is increasing its reefer car fleet. UP placed a $61 million order for 225 new refrigerated cars, which should join the fleet in the third quarter of 2013. The new cars will be 72 feet long, compared with the current fleet of 50- and 64-foot cars.
The carrier, which boasts the largest reefer fleet of any railroad in North America, saw its fleet get a quick boost this summer after spending about $5 million to repair 400 of 500 cars that had been idled because of damage. UP vowed it won’t fall behind in its refrigerated car repairs again. UP also has invested $24 million to make upgrades — mostly on refrigeration systems — to another 1,286 refrigerated cars in 2013.
