(The following story by Rolisha Davis appeared on the Daily Nonpareil website on October 12.)
COUNCIL BLIFFS, Iowa — A new train provides Southern California perishables shippers with both a high-speed and reliable transportation alternative while offering more efficient service in a more environmentally friendly way.
The 55-car state-of-the-art train of next-generation refrigerated boxcars meets or exceeds over-the-road transit times.
Union Pacific operates the train from the new refrigerated warehouse at Delano, about 35 miles north of Bakersfield, through Fremont, Neb. to Chicago. The entire train then is “handed off” to CSXT, which operates the train to a refrigerated warehouse at Schenectady, N.Y.
“We are excited about this new service, which offers customers in the Northeast a fast, reliable and environmentally friendly alternative to cross-country shipping over the road, ” said Donna Cerwonka, CSX transportation’s director of food and consumer products.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that each of the produce unit trains will reduce CO2 emissions by 85,000 metric tons each year.
Each train carries the same amount of produce and perishable items that would have been moved by more than 200 over-the-road trucks.
Each car holds about three-truck loads of produce. With the produce moving by rail rather than by truck, 100,000 fewer gallons of diesel fuel are being consumed each time the produce unit train operates.
Rail service across the United States has evolved over the years to efficiently transport fresh fruits, vegetables, dairy products and meat across the country.
“What is exciting about this new service is that we’re carrying produce such as peppers, grapes and celery that we haven’t carried in rail cars since they built the Interstate highway system,” said John Philp, Union Pacific Railroad, assistant vice president food and refrigerated products.
According to Philp, the new weekly transportation service for Southern California producers is a competitive shipping option for fresh produce to New York compared to over-the-road transportation and it takes advantage of the environmental benefits of shipping by rail.
The first patented refrigerated car was built in 1867. Air, forced over blocks of ice in large compartments on each end of the rail car, kept the perishable commodity cool.
Ice to fill the rail cars was naturally harvested from lakes and ponds. The ice cakes were stored in insulated buildings next to the track.
By the 1890s, health complications arose from the use of natural ice, its purity affected by expanding cities’ pollution and sewage dumping into waterways.
Since then, Union Pacific has perfected its network to run refrigerated rail car fleet carrying fresh and frozen products from the growing areas of the northern California and pacific northwest to points east, returning with meat and poultry products for export through west coast ports.