The new sixth-morning service, running between Los Angeles and Atlanta, will complement the two companies’ existing Bluestreak service on the same route, which currently offers the fastest fifth-morning service in this rapidly growing intermodal market. In a further enhancement, transit times for the Bluestreak service were cut by half a day from February 19, with availability in Atlanta moving from fifth-morning to fourth-evening.
The two companies will increase train capacity and improve service between Union Pacific’s Los Angeles terminals and terminals served by Norfolk Southern in Atlanta, Charlotte (NC), Greensboro (NC), Jacksonville (FL), Savannah (GA), Charleston (SC) and Miami.
In addition, UP and NS will begin shifting domestic and international traffic to a new, shorter route over the Shreveport (LA) gateway from the third quarter of 2007. This will begin when the first phase of improvements are complete on the Meridian Speedway. In December the two companies successfully ran test trains on this new corridor, which eliminates almost 150 miles from the current route and removes freight from the Memphis gateway.
