The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Co. and Norfolk Southern Railway Co. have agreed to provide non-stop transcontinental intermodal service between the West Coast, Southwest and the Southeast beginning May 21.
The service will link Richmond, Modesto, Fresno, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, CA, and Phoenix with Atlanta, Charlotte, NC, and Jacksonville, FL.
BNSF will provide service between the West Coast and Dallas, while NS will provide service between Dallas and the Southeast via an agreement with the Kansas City Southern Railway Company between Dallas and Meridian, MS.
The new service will provide shippers fifth-morning availability for both westbound and eastbound freight moving between southern California and Atlanta. When the service begins, NS plans to add at least 1,300 53-foot containers to the total number of containers it sponsors for use in the North American Container System, a doublestack container network comprised of ten North American intermodal rail networks.