Anyone who thinks shipping freight by rail is a thing of the past may want to think again.
A new Union Pacific Railroad intermodal facility — an investment of more than $90 million by the company — in is proof. At a ceremonial celebration of the facility’s opening on Wednesday, railroad officials said the new, 260-acre facility shows the kind of freight volume increases the company has experienced recently in .
Why in Salt Lake City? I thought intermodal facilities were placed at the port for loading, and near areas of population density for unloading-like Chicago. A container unloaded in SLC still has to go quite a ways to get to a population center outside of the immediate area, doesn’t it?
According to wikipedia, the Salt Lake-Ogden-Clearfield statistical area had a population of over 1.5 million in 2005. The Wasatch Front area adds over 500,000 more. SLC area has the third largest metropolitan population of the interior western states, behind Denver & Phoenix.
Anyone got a mappointer to this new yard? I tried looking on Google maps, using the address in the article, and got Nada. Perhaps the satellite photos were taken before construction was started?
I think looking at trainyards with google earth /google maps is my new favorite hobby…[:D]
Yep, the folks un Utah eat candy made in Chicago and receive UPS packages.
If I had to bet, and I do bet, it’s imbalance is inbound. That is, it receives more inbound loads than it originates outbound loads. So westbound intermodal into SLC is good, profitable business for the UP.
Running an import load from LA to Chicago, reloading the container west to SLC, then fliping the empty back to LA is certainly better than moving the empty back all the way from Chicago to LA.
When he was VP of Marketing at the Western Pacific, Harry Bruce won “The Golden Freight Car” award for developing intermodal freight into Salt Lake City. It was less than truckload freight out of the Bay Area and eliminated empty (as in no revenue) miles on the WP.
We have a large intermodal yard in Harrisburg, PA. It was the old Reading RR Rutherford yard that was converted to intermodal by Conarail and NS. There are a large number of trucking companies in the area and IM and TOFC traffic easily warrents a specialized yard. Harrisburg is the hub for the old PRR tracks from Philadelphia to Pittsburg and the north south route from Bluefield, WV to Buffalo. It is also convient to many interstates, so trucking companies located terminals here. The nearest ports are Philadelphia and Baltimore, Md.
You can count Nevada and far Western Colorado to that list, maybe even SW Montana. UP no longer provides intermodal service to the Port of Montana at Butte, so there’s no intermodal terminal services anymore between SLC and Portland.
No wonder truck traffic is getting thicker on the I-84 corridor.
Well, you can’t “count” Nevada since the UP has intermodal terminals at Las Vegas and Sparks (Reno) And if they’ve covered those two places along with Salt Lake City, they’ve covered just about everything that could or should move intermodally into, or out of, Nevada.
I know Las Vegas had/has a candy factory. Aside from that, I can’t think of a thing that would move outbound from Nevada in an intermodal trailer or container.
Butte? Western Colorado? Come on! There are not enough people there, or anything produced there, to support a viable intermodal operation. If there were, the UP would serve it, as they do the viable opportunities in SLC, Reno, and Vegas. They don’t make money by not hauling freight.
Why don’t you inform us of the intermodal opportunities between SLC and Portland that the Union Pacific Marketing Department is missing?
The northeastern part of Nevada (Elko, Ely, Wendover) would potentially have some intermodal loads in out throiugh SLC. Loads coming from/going to points east would make more sense to use the SLC facility than Sparks.
As for things moving outbound from Nevada in trailers or containers there is export hay, and diatomite products (ie kitty litter.) Mostly from the Reno area.
I will agree. But the UP’s got it covered with intermodal terminals in Sparks (Reno) and Salt Lake City.
I don’t think that Reno hay/kitty litter is gonna’ move intermodal to the port. It’s a short run over Donner Pass and by the time you hook up the highway tractor, dray it to the ramp, load it on the train, rail it into Oakland, take it off the railcar, and dray it to the port: You’d just as well have kept the highway tractor hooked to it and run it in there.
The Salt Lake area is now urban/suburban from Spanish Fork (ie. ex DRGW Soldier Summit Canyon) to Brigham City on the north. You would be surprised at the amount of manufacturing here. SLC area seems to be a great location to serve the California market - without having to deal with CA.
Outbound from Nevada - Returned merchandise. There’s a big return sort center there. That’s about it.
Chances are the exercise machine that you bought at Sears, which is now a clothes drying rack was made in the SLC suburb of Clearfield and was shipped via intermodal. There is also product from SW Wyoming that moved over the SLC ramp (diatomacious earth). Pretty busy place.
… has all the intermodal infrastructure one could want. Unfortunately, neither UP nor BNSF will provide the right service. Southwest Idaho is one of the fastest growing regions in the nation, not only for agricultural products, but manufactured products as well. FYI - both Butte/Silver Bow and SW Idaho have a larger traffic base than either Sparks/Reno with it’s kitty litter operation, or Las Vegas with it’s cathouse…er, “candy factory”.
So why does UP operate intermodal facilties in Sparks b
There is one issue with the argument that you just made. UP for the most part has Las Vegas to itself, so why does the UP have a terminal there? Using your argument, there would no terminal there as there is little to no railroad competition in the LAS area.