North-American rail

The monthly year-over-year decline in import TEUs landing in Los Angeles and Long Beach over the past half-year isn’t a cargo swoon, but rather a return to normalcy, according to Larry Gross.

Overall, more than 90% of respondents participating in the latest Journal of Commerce Intermodal Service Scorecard were satisfied with domestic intermodal service between July 1 and Dec. 31, 2025.

While linehaul performance has largely returned to normal for US Class I railroads, delays and bottlenecks triggered by the severe winter storm two weeks ago have now moved downstream to terminals in Chicago, Cincinnati and Memphis.

Spot intermodal savings reached record levels in the fourth quarter, but railroads might hold back on raising rates as the disruptive winter weather has skewed trucking rates.

Union Pacific Railroad called the decision by federal regulators to rule its filing as “incomplete” a minor setback that won’t significantly change the timeline for its hoped-for acquisition of NS.

The regulator’s decision was unanimous, but Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern can fix what is deficient in the application and resubmit it at a later date.

But the US’ largest intermodal provider said during its fourth-quarter earnings call it is not forecasting a market inflection just yet, citing the “false starts” the industry has seen during the past 18 months.

Cooperation in the form of steel-wheel interchange has fallen out of fashion as railroads have become less willing to do the necessary work that is intrinsic in the swap of volume on rail, according to Larry Gross.

The delays began last month after the railroad transitioned its Louisville ramp to grounded operations, but NS says it is taking steps to mitigate the backups.

Intermodal marketing companies have long been at a disadvantage because rail-owned containers lacked the real-time tracking and tracing capabilities that are standard among private fleets.

While Union Pacific plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to make a combined railroad run smoothly, there are locations where service could degrade should the merger be approved by federal regulators.

ONE and SM Line are ocean carrier partners to Union Pacific on the West Coast, and a majority of UP’s international intermodal volume originates at the Port of Los Angeles.

Union Pacific sent a 6,000-plus page application to US regulators Friday seeking formal approval for its closely watched merger proposal with Norfolk Southern that would create the country’s first transcontinental railroad.

The head of one opposition union says the job protection deals agreed to by other unions in exchange for their support of the merger have “loopholes big enough to traverse freight trains through.”

For the first time, US regulators can evaluate a rail merger not on assertions, but on what the data actually shows — and they can do it in hours, not months.

Jim Vena blamed the delay on a contractor that must revise material that will be included in what will be a nearly 4,000-page filing to federal regulators.

The National Association of Waterfront Employers said intermodal service from ports could degrade further unless service commitments are made in the proposed $85 billion deal.

The railroad says the appointment system will create more “predictable operations” by controlling the number of containers that are in-gated each day.

The job protection deal with the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers is significant because previous rail mergers have led to overlapping operations and the consolidation of terminals, resulting in workforce reductions.

The move represents the latest effort by the two railroads to jointly convince shippers to shift more truckload freight to rail by addressing intermodal’s slower transits.

The comments from Joe Hinrichs follow a report that CSX’s board of directors was displeased that UP allegedly contacted Hinrichs first about a potential UP-CSX combination and only turned to Norfolk Southern after receiving a tepid response.

Intermodal needs to put itself in a position where it can perform against trucking through all the stages of the economic cycle, writes analyst Larry Gross.

The new details clarify the role the two railroads will play in Schneider’s just-launched Fast Track product, which comes with a 95% on-time guarantee.

Whether for or against the UP-NS deal, a merged railroad would reshape the Chicago drayage market.

Daniel Elliott III told a webinar that the proposed $85 billion merger is “leaning more toward approval” because of the White House’s support.

While intermodal savings remain above 20%, according to the latest Intermodal Savings Index, there is not enough pressure yet in the trucking market to drive up rates across the US on intermodal rail.

The railroads will make a harder play to capture Dallas-to-East Coast freight after track upgrades come online along the Gulf Coast early next year.

Recent tensions involved CPKC’s opposition to the UP-NS merger, but the battle has morphed into a larger disagreement about poor service on a 300-mile stretch of track in Louisiana and Mississippi known as the Meridian Speedway.

The largest US intermodal provider’s relationships with competing eastern railroads Norfolk Southern and CSX are shifting and will continue evolving through 2026 as the proposed merger between NS and UP winds its way through the regulatory process.

Union Pacific’s application seeking federal approval to acquire Norfolk Southern will be 4,000 pages long and provide the first detailed look at how the railroads believe customers would benefit from the $85 billion deal.

One possible explanation for the gain is the softer volumes that were artificially suppressed and shifted in August and September of 2024 due to separate labor-related events, but clarity should come over the next week when market players report third-quarter earnings.

Carriers continue to struggle to raise rates on intermodal shippers, resulting in revenue gains or losses based solely on volume.

J.B. Hunt lowered its peak season surcharge because of disappointing volume on the West Coast.

The overhaul marks the latest in a series of network shakeups among North American railroads competing for international intermodal freight.

The start-and-stop nature of the Trump administration’s tariffs means changes are coming at a pace that exceeds the supply chains’ ability to react, writes Larry Gross.

But Union Pacific’s Jim Vena says the cooperation agreements that rival railroads are making to compete with a combined UP-NS don’t yield the same benefits as a merger.

The disruptions in the Howard Street Tunnel in Baltimore and Blue Ridge subdivision on the Tennessee-North Carolina border resulted in longer transits for intermodal shippers on CSX this year.

The proposed creation of a transcontinental railroad could allow West Coast ports to better compete for Asia cargo destined for markers east of Chicago, writes Executive Editor Mark Szakonyi.

The about-face from SMART-TD, which had initially opposed the $85 billion transaction over fears of job losses, makes regulatory approval of the merger far more likely.

The potential merger partners plan to replace drayage trucking legs with direct rail service as Class I railroads join to redraw North America’s intermodal map.