Shreveport Louisanna USA - CPKC has imposed an 8,500 foot train length restriction on the Meridian Speedway, the shortcut between the Southeast and Southwest that is a joint venture with Norfolk Southern.
 
The move affects just one train, the daily eastbound domestic intermodal train that CPKC receives from Union Pacific at Shreveport, Louisanna, and delivers to NS at Meridian, Mississippi.
 
The train, symboled ZLAAI on UP and 28J on NS, was typically 11,000 feet long before CPKC recently mandated that trains fit into the Meridian Speedway's passing sidings.
 
The single track, 302 mile, Speedway route between Shreveport and the connection with NS at Meridian has 21 passing sidings, most of which are around 8,500 feet long.
 
Only three of the Speedway's passing sidings can handle an 11,000 foot train.
 
Now the 2,500 feet of eastbound overflow traffic that used to move on the UP-NS interline train is running instead via interchange at Memphis, which adds 2 days to the transit time.
 
UP and NS say they are looking for alternatives.
 
"We are reviewing this action and are engaging with other railroads to find efficient solutions," UP spokeswoman Robynn Tysver says.
 
"Norfolk Southern is dedicated to meeting the needs of our customers, and we're working closely with our interline partners to most effectively do so," NS spokesman Connor Spielmaker says.
 
The westbound UP-NS service has not been affected because the typical train is around 8,000 feet long.
 
Intermodal analyst Larry Gross says the longer transit time for containers moving via Memphis may prompt the affected UP and NS customers to jump ship.
 
"Variability is never a good thing when it comes to intermodal service. But there is a big difference depending on whether it is international intact containers moving or domestic containers. Since international container transit time is measured in weeks from origin, an additional two days on a transit from the West Coast to the Southeast is probably not a deal-killer. On the other hand, I don't think it would be acceptable for domestic intermodal volume. But it wouldn't necessarily go back to the highway. It might go to another carrier/routing but stay on the rail," Gross says.
 
The daily eastbound UP-NS trains, which originate on UP in Los Angeles with containers bound for several destinations in the Southeast, are the only ones that were running over siding length on the Meridian Speedway.
 
The route handles as many as 15 trains per day.
 
CPKC did not have an immediate comment beyond remarks that CEO Keith Creel made last year.
 
During the CPKC merger hearings in October 2022, Creel said that train lengths should match siding capacity.
 
Creel was critical of UP's practice of running trains that were longer than Englewood Yard's receiving and departure tracks in Houston.
 
CPKC relies on UP trackage rights to run through Houston.
 
Creel said he understands UP's desire to run longer trains.
 
"But you can't let your ambitions get ahead of your physical plant. You have to match yard capacity with main line capacity, and size of trains," Creel said.
 
Meanwhile, UP and CPKC are at loggerheads over merger-related issues.
 
UP in May asked a federal court to review the Surface Transportation Board's approval of the CPKC merger, arguing that the decision exceeded the board's authority, was not supported by the evidence, and failed to address potential competitive harms.
 
In addition, CPKC and UP are locked in a dispute over whether Kansas City Southern trackage rights on UP south of Beaumont, Texas, can be used for unit grain trains that originate on CPKC in the Upper Midwest.
 
CPKC contends that it should be able to run the trains to export at the ports of Houston and Galveston on trackage rights that date to UP's 1988 acquisition of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad.
 
UP says that only grain originating around Kansas City is eligible to use the so-called South End rights.
 
The trackage rights case is currently before a federal court and the STB.
 
In October last year UP booted CP from the EMP domestic container pool, which is a joint venture between UP and NS.
 
The Meridian Speedway joint venture dates to 2006, when NS contributed $300 million to fund capacity, signal, and track improvements in exchange for a 30 percent interest in the Kansas City Southern route.
 
Under the Meridian Speedway LLC agreements, NS has haulage rights on the Speedway for intermodal traffic that originates or terminates west of Dallas.
 
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