Rail

Shippers saved less than in prior quarters on their intermodal contracts to close 2022, setting up a race to the bottom this year to keep freight on the rails.

Norfolk Southern’s plan to bring more capacity to its international intermodal business this year has kicked off with new cranes enabling the stacking of marine containers at its Austell ramp in Georgia.

US Class I railroads are taking steps to address quality-of-life issues for their employees, including reducing on-call positions, avoiding furloughs, and introducing more flexible working structures.

The approximately 72-hour repair on a bridge in New Mexico would appear to mitigate what could potentially have been a major disruption for UP’s international and domestic intermodal shippers.

Some Virginia state legislators are looking to fund a second inland port, but the project’s prospects hinge on railroad and shipper demand, according to a study.

An outage involving a bridge in New Mexico in the heart of Union Pacific’s network is causing major delays for intermodal and automotive shippers between Southern California and two major inland hubs.

The Class I railroad vowed it would focus on providing better service to shippers in 2023 and move to heal wounds from tense labor negotiations by addressing quality-of-life issues affecting its workforce.

If inland rail ramps remain congested due to chassis shortages and discretionary imports continue to flow away from the West Coast to the East Coast, international intermodal volumes could decline for a second straight year.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services will focus on working with shippers to empty containers in a more expedited manner as freight is moving slower than ever with box turn ratios falling for four consecutive years.

Intermodal shippers are sitting on the sidelines until warehouses unclog and rail service improves, which will result in lower contract rates for shippers in 2023.

As consumer buying patterns return to a more normal mix of goods and services in 2023, domestic intermodal providers will have to find a way to fill a huge influx of boxes ordered during the pandemic.

The lingering congestion in Chicago and Kansas City comes despite a decrease in US imports and a relatively low volume of freight being transported inland by train.

To better handle the next cargo surge, inland hubs need to own enough equipment so they can build and deconstruct container stacks while possessing the technology to plan for cargo retrieval.

Amtrak had asked federal regulators for permission to restart a passenger service between New Orleans and Mobile that had not operated since Hurricane Katrina, but Class I railroads and the Port of Mobile opposed the move.

Union Pacific has removed the demurrage penalty caps on cargo in Chicago and Kansas City, although trucking companies indicate some international containers remain stacked in both cities because of a shortage of marine chassis.

A new Oregon intermodal ramp linked to Union Pacific’s network should ease ag shipper frustrations over rising transportation costs and limited container availability.

Norfolk Southern Railway will shut one of two container spillover lots outside Memphis this week after a significant reduction in rail boxes coming into the inland hub from Savannah.

The filing is just the latest in a barrage of complaints made against various container lines with the FMC in recent months, a flurry accelerated by major reform of US shipping law that went into effect in June.

The need for forwarders to tether quoting and tracking in international freight modes to US surface modes has been highlighted by new offerings from ECU Worldwide and Freightos.

As the US economy slows, logistics managers are searching not just for lower supply chain costs but a normalization of freight flows and networks, a level of stability and predictability that remains elusive.