By Mark Edward Nero
Beginning Sept. 12, BNSF Railway began offering intermodal customers a new service option to move freight between the Pacific Northwest and Texas.
Shippers moving commodities and a wide range of consumer goods between Seattle or Portland, Oregon Dallas/Fort Worth can reduce their transit times by up to two days, BNSF says, compared to rail transit time options currently in the marketplace.
This new service is comparable in speed to single-driver, over-the-road options, according to BNSF.
The new service option is the first of multiple new routes that BNSF says will be announced and rolled out over the next year.
“By leveraging underutilized capacity in the central section of BNSF’s network, this new service option means that BNSF will offer expedited service for customers who wish to have their shipments arrive in Dallas/Fort Worth on the morning of the fifth transit day,” the company said in a statement.
From BNSF’s intermodal facility located near Fort Worth, Texas, customers can reach the major Texas or Oklahoma markets with a short-haul trucking option to move containers and trailers for dry or refrigerated goods, the rail company said.
Traffic along the route will run Monday through Friday in both directions, with the route including a refueling option along the way for refrigerated equipment carrying temperature-sensitive gear.
