BNSF offers express PNW/Midwest link

BNSF offers express PNW/Midwest link Class I rail carrier BNSF said Tuesday it is now offering express international container service from ports in Seattle and Tacoma, Wash., to intermodal facilities in Chicago and Memphis.
   According to BNSF officials, the new service will trim about a day's shipping time between those ports and Memphis.
   The Fort Worth, Texas-based BNSF, already in the midst of a $200 million expansion of the firm's Memphis intermodal yard, is initially offering one full train weekly from either port to either destination on a schedule that matches an ocean carrier’s discharge/dray. The railroad said it plans to expand the service as shipper interest grows.
   'The new express service not only relies on the speed of the train and the route followed, but also the ability of the ports and the intermodal hubs to provide efficient and reliable service,' said Steve Branscum, BNSF’s group vice president of consumer products marketing.
   Officials from both ports believe the new service will provide added flexibility to shippers through the Pacific Northwest.
   In addition to enhancing reliability and service options, 'the wide range of ocean carriers calling at our port, combined with this revised service, gives shippers tremendous flexibility when routing cargo through the Pacific Northwest,” said Mike Reilly, the Port of Tacoma's director of intermodal business.
   Charlie Sheldon, managing director of the Port of Seattle, added that the new BNSF service would make the Pacific Northwest gateway 'even more competitive by reducing transit times to hubs in Chicago and Memphis.”