Union Pacific Archives

Spring, TX – The Union Pacific Railroad has said it will move forward with plans for a new rail yard in Robertson County, Texas, “that will strengthen Texas as a national freight transportation hub, create jobs and deliver significant economic stimulus to the region.”

The facility, known as a classification yard, will function by sorting rail cars by destination on separate tracks from inbound trains to make multiple outbound trains.

Outbound trains will be fueled, inspected by a mechanical crew, and then depart to local and regional destinations.

Seven different Union Pacific rail lines converge in Southern Robertson County, connecting the markets of Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, Austin, San Antonio, the Gulf Coast and the rest of East Texas.

Texas “is experiencing exponential population growth, resulting in increased demand for building materials and consumer goods,” the company said. “The Union Pacific’s new rail facility will help meet the region’s growing freight transportation needs while taking over-the-road trucks off the highways.”

One Union Pacific train can carry the same freight as up to 280 trucks, and, according to EPA data, trains are four times more fuel efficient than trucks.

10/07/2014

Santa Teresa, NM – Officials from the Union Pacific Railroad and the State of New Mexico were on-hand recently to officially christen the rail carrier’s new $400 million, 300-acre rail facility in Santa Teresa.

The facility sits on a 2,200 tract of land purchased by the UP and is located near the city’s three industrial parks and the Santa Teresa port of entry.

The new terminal includes one of Union Pacific’s largest fueling facilities and the railroad’s largest intermodal freight terminal along the US-Mexico border.

The high-tech intermodal terminal opened April 1 and is expected to process more than 170,000 freight containers this year. It is to be expanded in future years to eventually handle 700,000 containers a year.

Union Pacific generated about $4 billion in intermodal business last year — 20 percent of its total freight sales of $20.7 billion.

The state Legislature’s passage of a bill exempting Union Pacific from paying locomotive fuel tax was a key piece to get Union Pacific to build the facility, officials said. That bill was signed by New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez in March 2011. Construction began in the summer of that year.

A series of land swaps between the state, the federal government, and the Union Pacific allowed the railroad to acquire the 2,200 acres in Santa Teresa, most of it owned by the Bureau of Land Management, according to the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission.

06/17/2014

Union Pacific Plans New Texas Rail Yard

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