New Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern intermodal gateway expands market access

Union Pacific Corporation and Norfolk Southern Corporation are launching a new domestic intermodal service to deliver greater market reach and more efficient freight transportation options. The service leverages Union Pacific's premier network to connect customers with key western and southern markets and Norfolk Southern's modernized intermodal facilities in the Louisville area.

Why it matters: This joint service, expected to begin in mid-October, offers customers across industries — automotive, consumer goods, food and beverage, healthcare and manufacturing — truck-competitive transit times and expanded market reach.

How it works: This bi-directional service will originate and terminate in the Louisville market, interchanging between Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific in Kansas City. It will travel by rail to and from:

• Los Angeles
• Lathrop, California
• Seattle
• Portland, Oregon
• Salt Lake City
• Houston

This is another example of Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern developing innovative interline service products, just as each has with other short line and Class I rail partners in the past, to support the growth of the American economy. Other products include moving freight from Los Angeles to Charlotte, North Carolina, and Jacksonville, Florida.

Rail infrastructure powering the launch: Strategic investments from Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern make the new service possible.

Union Pacific:

The new Kansas City Intermodal Terminal (KCIT) provides a critical interchange point, connecting domestic and international shipments of grains, consumer goods, refrigerated products and auto parts in the growing Midwest region to major markets across the United States.

Recent changes to Union Pacific's network operations allow domestic containers to move 25% faster, saving up to 25 hours of transit time to and from Southern California to KCIT.

Union Pacific has invested $1.4 billion in its intermodal products, opening four new terminals and modernizing 12 others since 2021 to proactively support market demand and compete with trucks.

Norfolk Southern:

Norfolk Southern is strengthening its long-standing presence in Louisville — historically focused on international intermodal — by modifying its terminal footprint to expand parking and track capacity, enabling service tailored to the domestic market's growing needs.

Operating the most extensive intermodal network in the eastern U.S., Norfolk Southern has 54 terminals and connections to every major container port on the Atlantic coast, as well as major ports along the Gulf Coast and Great Lakes.

Norfolk Southern continues to modernize its intermodal franchise through strategic investments in terminal infrastructure, advanced technologies, and customer-focused tools and processes.

What they're saying:

"Our customers want easier, more reliable freight solutions that they can depend on, and our robust service delivers that," said Kenny Rocker, Executive Vice President – Marketing and Sales at Union Pacific. "Enhancements to the newly expanded Kansas City Intermodal Terminal and Norfolk Southern investments in Louisville allow us to compete with trucks, removing thousands from the nation's congested highways."

"Our enhancements in the Louisville market reflect how intently we listen to our customers and translate their feedback into thoughtful planning and strategic infrastructure investments," said Ed Elkins, Chief Commercial Officer at Norfolk Southern. "This is a growth area for our customers, so we are stepping up with service to help them reach untapped markets with a more reliable, sustainable alternative to trucking."