Canadian National Railway Company (CN) and CSX on Tuesday announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding to develop a new intermodal service into Nashville.
The service will provide customers with an all-rail alternative for international containers moving from Canada’s West Coast gateways through Memphis directly into Nashville, replacing the current trucking leg with a steel-wheel interchange.
“This agreement allows us to expand our reach, enabling our customers to efficiently access more markets," said Janet Drysdale, CN's Interim Chief Commercial Officer. "Collaboration like this benefits everyone: railroads, customers, and communities, by driving growth, reliability, optionality, and sustainability.”
The new service with CN provides a faster and more sustainable all-rail option into Nashville, said CSX Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer Kevin Boone, "helping shippers strengthen their supply chains while reducing truck traffic on our highways."
Both companies already have a long-standing partnership on the East Coast, serving the ports of New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia since 2019.
Rail's ongoing push for road freight
Union Pacific Railroad and Norfolk Southern Corporation are in the midst of a proposed merger that would establish a massive transcontinental railroad as part of an $85 billion deal that connects more than 50,000 route miles across 43 states from the East Coast to the West Coast, linking approximately 100 ports and nearly every corner of North America. The deal still must be approved by the Surface Transportation Board but already has the backing of Knight-Swift Transportation (CCJ Top 250, No. 4) and C.R. England (No. 32).
Union Pacific Railroad last week launched a new, truck-competitive domestic intermodal service connecting Southern California’s Inland Empire to Chicago, significantly boosting its intermodal capacity.
CSX Corporation and BNSF last month announced new intermodal services they hope will convert over-the-road freight to rail through a seamless product between the two railroads. A new service between Phoenix, Arizona, and Atlanta, Georgia, particularly targets OTR freight, the rail companies said.
