RailState, the rail industry’s only provider of real-time rail network visibility, independently tracks freight rail movements across North America in real-time.
This report covers train and intermodal container movements on Union Pacific and BNSF railways in the southwest United States.
Union Pacific
In January, daily train volume on Union Pacific eastbound through southern California averaged 12.3 trains per day, down more than a train per day from December’s average of 13.6 trains per day. Intermodal accounted for 61.5% of train volume for January, and 30% were manifest trains.
Train volumes heading westbound on UP were slightly higher than the eastbound volumes, averaging 12.7 trains per day, with intermodal accounting for 68% of trains and manifest representing 31%.
BNSF
BNSF moved an average of 27.4 trains per day eastbound in January, completely unchanged from train volumes in December. Intermodal trains made up 82% of eastbound traffic through Arizona in January.
In January, BNSF moved one fewer train per day westbound compared to the eastbound direction. Intermodal makes up a slightly smaller percentage of trains moving westbound on BNSF, 77% compared to 82% in the eastbound direction.
Intermodal
Union Pacific moved 73,001 containers eastbound through southern California in January, evenly split between international and domestic containers. Overall container volume was down 8.3% from December, driven by a larger (10.6%) drop in domestic container volume.
In January, BNSF moved 136,109 containers eastbound, almost unchanged from the 136,697 moved in December. There was a significant change in the breakdown of container types with international container volume increasing 16.6% from December and domestic volume dropping 13.8%.
Total container volume last month on both lines was 209,110, with BNSF moving 65.0% of total container volume and 64.3% of domestic container volume.