Western Railroad Discussion > New BNSF reefer train service to the east?

I was told by a friend he heard that BNSF was to start up a new proposed  reefer express service to the east coast some time this year. He didn't have any details about it. Just wanted to ask if some one on here might have more information about this? Thanks in advance.

Well the RailEx warehouse in Wallula, WA should be available. BNSF has trackage rights over the UP by there, just not sure if the rights include industries between Wallula and Ayer.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

I hope not. It would be a waste of money.

It's not that the railroads don't have a great opportunity in the perishable business, they do.  The rails lost a lot of this long haul business due to inane government regulations that favored the truckers.  

But why spend extra money and scarce crews running a special train?  Just add the perishables to the existing Z trains.

funnelfan Wrote:
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> Well the RailEx warehouse in Wallula, WA should be
> available. BNSF has trackage rights over the UP by
> there, just not sure if the rights include
> industries between Wallula and Ayer.

Yes the UP takeover cost  a friend his job there due to the shutdown seemed to be working well until they bought it.

Is UP still running reefer trains to upstate New York?

About half the IM traffic out of Stockton/SIF/Modesto carries reefers on the head end with some days
a substantial pick up in Bakersfield (carrots).

Out 

Ya it’s funny….I work a switch job out of Seattle that services a seafood industry. We spot and pull reefers with you guessed it, crab, lobster, shrimp, various fish… each car load worth well over 1/2 a million. The cars are sent to the east coast through various interchanges…somewhere in New England…where there is some of the best seafood in the country. Go figure!

Posted from iPhone

CPR_4000 Wrote:
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> Is UP still running reefer trains to upstate New
> York?


Nope... PSR killed those in spring of 2020... And they weren't solid reefer trains anyway from 2015 on...

UP still is sending taters to the northeast i believe

BAB Wrote:
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> funnelfan Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Well the RailEx warehouse in Wallula, WA should
> be
> > available. BNSF has trackage rights over the UP
> by
> > there, just not sure if the rights include
> > industries between Wallula and Ayer.
>
> Yes the UP takeover cost  a friend his job there
> due to the shutdown seemed to be working well
> until they bought it.

Last time I drove by the former RailEx facility at Wallula a few weeks ago, UP had apparently re-purposed this, what I'm guessing to be an expensive facility, for a new use - storing centerbeam flat cars!  That must be giving UP one hell of a return on investment!!!

And about a Class One railroads offering new, expedited reefer service...  ha, ha, yeah, another pie in the sky marketing scheme.  Much like UP's former, highly publicized and marketed, expedited reefer service out of California ("Express Lane Service") to the midwest and eastern US;  begins with great fan fare and service, maybe is even fairly or moderately successful at generating new business, but within a relatively short time period, soon they start getting greedy and start adding other traffic to the trains making them much, much longer, slower, and they start missing their schedules, and then followed shortly by termination of the service because the customers leave.  I don't know how many times I've seen loaded perishable cars sit in the yard for days waiting for a train to depart on, then it's off to the next yard to do the same thing!  Last week a loaded reefer of perishables sat on the rip track for some sort of repair for 6 days(!) before it finally moved on.  I wonder if it will have enough fuel left to make its destination???

"We spot and pull reefers with you guessed it, crab, lobster, shrimp, various fish… each car load worth well over 1/2 a million. The cars are sent to the east coast through various interchanges…somewhere in New England…where there is some of the best seafood in the country. Go figure! "

Different types of Seafood than what is caught in New England.  A seafood processer near me gets an occasional BNSF reefer from the West Coast.
Dick Eisfeller
Greenland, NH.

A seafood warehouse in New Bedford, MA receives reefers from the West Coast and supposedly sends out cars loaded with different fish. Warehouse is located on Mass Coastal RR.

Posted from Android

All these examples of bad service just blow my mind.  I wish the STB would read all of them!

Nothing really new...

FWIW, reefer cars for various customers/destinations also sit on the NS system for days....

Posted from Android

Greyhounds Wrote:
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> I hope not. It would be a waste of money.
>
> It's not that the railroads don't have a great
> opportunity in the perishable business, they do. 
> The rails lost a lot of this long haul business
> due to inane government regulations that favored
> the truckers.  
>
> But why spend extra money and scarce crews running
> a special train?  Just add the perishables to the
> existing Z trains.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   For Z trains, BNSF has a 15 car limit for reefers to be placed in such a train in order to run 70 mph, provided that other conditions apply. Otherwise, the max is 55 (provided cars are in compliance). Reason why the condr checks his train list and counts cars carefully upon reviewing the outbound work order.  Have not seen one yet exceed the 15 car limit. These freezer loads are normally on the ZSTOWSP.                                                                                                                                                                                                            The unit train service of solid reefers was tried two-three yrs ago on a once-a-week schedule but did not last for too long                                                                                               Sam