FORT WORTH, Texas and NORFOLK, Va. — The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company (BNSF) and Norfolk Southern Railway Company (NS) announced in a joint press release that beginning April 22 they will offer the first-ever, coast-to-coast guaranteed intermodal service between Southern California and the Northeast.
Shippers will have the option to purchase — for a premium — seamless, coast-to-coast guaranteed intermodal service for domestic and international container loads of freight moving between San Bernardino, Calif. and Harrisburg, Pa. For each load that does not meet the scheduled availability time for customer pick-up, BNSF and NS will offer a 100-percent refund.
“The new BNSF/NS service extends BNSF’s guaranteed network to a total of 16 lanes,” said Steve Branscum, group vice president, BNSF Consumer Products Marketing. “It is designed to attract a greater share of the freight moving over-the-road between Southern California and the Northeast by giving shippers a risk-free transportation alternative.”
“By adding the guarantee option, we truly believe we have a coast-to-coast transportation product in place that will satisfy our most demanding customers,” said Mike McClellan, vice president, NS Intermodal Marketing. “Moreover, the guaranteed service reliability provides yet another reason for transcontinental over-the-road shippers to consider rail as their preferred mode of transportation.”
Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE: NSC – news), is a Virginia-based holding company with headquarters in Norfolk. It owns a major freight railroad, Norfolk Southern Railway Company, which operates approximately 21,500 route miles in 22 states, the District of Columbia and the province of Ontario.
A subsidiary of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation (NYSE: BNI – news), BNSF operates one of the largest rail networks in North America, with 33,000 route miles of track covering 28 states and two Canadian provinces. BNSF is an industry leader in Web-enabling a wide variety of customer transactions. The railway moves more intermodal traffic than any other rail system in the world, is America’s largest grain-hauling railroad, and hauls enough coal to generate more than 10 percent of the electricity produced in the United States.