(The following story by John D. Boyd appeared on The Journal of Commerce website on December 14, 2009.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Union Pacific Railroad packed more unit trains of agricultural products in November than ever in its history, with 400 all-crop trains topping the previous high of 381 in October 2006.
“With record crop production levels, we knew this would be a busy year,” said Paul Hammes, UP vice president and general manager for agricultural operations.
Unit trains haul a single cargo, instead of a mixed-freight or manifest train that combines various types of loads. Unit trains can offer considerable cost advantages by putting the same types of product together at origin or destination, so they can avoid sorting so many railcars at train yards.
UP said of its 400 unit trains of farm goods, 338 were grain and soybean unit trains while 62 were grain product trains.