Western Railroad Discussion > JB Hunt moving some east-west traffic to UP?

There are some rumblings coming out of Omaha suggesting JB Hunt has committed to using UP for a "selected" amount of traffic moving in these lanes: Portland-Chicago, Los Angeles-Dallas, Los Angeles-Houston. Reportedly it's NOT a raid on current JB Hunt traffic running on BNSF but business that was converted over from all truck, primarily due to the driver shortage. Maybe or maybe not.

Anyway, as time goes on we'll see if this pans out...but there is one confirmed report of seeing a detoured (due to Tower 55 construction work in Ft. Worth) LA-Dallas "Z" train with quite a few JB Hunt containers on it.

BTW railfan (and railroader) eyes at trackside are a good way to determine how accurate these rumblings are...


Allen



Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 08/28/14 11:10 by bradleymckay.

Does that involve container stacking w/o chassis which I would view as some indication of permanency with UP. Right now Hunt moves a fair amount of containers with chassis on UP on the I5 corridor and I believe Mexico traffic also. Hunt uses their own chassis pool (JBHZ reporting marks).

kalthoff Wrote:
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> Does that involve container stacking w/o chassis
> which I would view as some indication of
> permanency with UP. Right now Hunt moves a fair
> amount of containers with chassis on UP on the I5
> corridor and I believe Mexico traffic also. Hunt
> uses their own chassis pool (JBHZ reporting
> marks).


They are stacking containers in well cars. Last Thursday night I seen an West bound stack train on the LA sub with JB Hunt stacked with EMP and Hub containers. The rumor is true.

Hector

That us WILD! For the first time ever, there are Hunt boxes stacked on UP trains. Hardly anything exclusive to BNSF anymore, as far as intermodal goes.

Yes, getting JB Hunt stacks on UP is a big one: previously only on chassis; for whatever reason I had not seen them without chassis even on spine cars. Now for Schneider and Swift! Have any Hunt stacks appeared on the I-5 corridor yet?

Not surprising with how much BNSF has downgraded their intermodal service, particularly to and from the Pacific Northwest. Maybe it is a tier approach that JB Hunt is taking, like putting their premium, higher paid rate traffic on the UP while keeping thier lower hanging fruit on a reduced service BNSF?

I can't imagine that UP has anywhere near the terminal resources in the PNW to handle a bunch of new domestic intermodal business. Their Portland (Brooklyn) operations must be at capacity by now with all the new business that they've already acquired.

cpn456 Wrote:
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> Not surprising with how much BNSF has downgraded
> their intermodal service, particularly to and from
> the Pacific Northwest. Maybe it is a tier
> approach that JB Hunt is taking, like putting
> their premium, higher paid rate traffic on the UP
> while keeping thier lower hanging fruit on a
> reduced service BNSF?
>
> I can't imagine that UP has anywhere near the
> terminal resources in the PNW to handle a bunch of
> new domestic intermodal business. Their Portland
> (Brooklyn) operations must be at capacity by now
> with all the new business that they've already
> acquired.


It sure would make sense for UP to re-open Albina for select intermodal (maybe just OSL traffic). Even the expansion/re-configuration of Brooklyn doesn't seem like it will be adequate. Albina could easily be a 150k lift facility without much work. In Seattle, Argo seems pretty near capacity too, and although TACSIM has a little more room for parking, it doesn't for ramp tracks. Bet UP is sorry they let that land in Kent get away: that would have been a good central location and potentially about 200 acre facility.

StStephen Wrote:
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> It sure would make sense for UP to re-open Albina
> for select intermodal (maybe just OSL traffic).
> Even the expansion/re-configuration of Brooklyn
> doesn't seem like it will be adequate. Albina
> could easily be a 150k lift facility without much
> work. In Seattle, Argo seems pretty near capacity

That was my thoughts. With the old freight house gone, there's a lot more room now south of the old ramp area that could be made into a greatly expanded intermodal facility compared to the cramped operations that were there before they were transferred to Brooklyn.