Severe Weather and Flooding Continue to Impact Rail Operations

Announcement Number: CN2019-49
Categories: General Announcements
Posted Date: June 24, 2019

To Our Customers,

Flooding conditions continue to impact operations across the southern portion of our network. High winds and heavy rain led to several spot outages across our network and one new long-term outage. Over the last 24 hours, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana experienced flooding and downed trees and power lines resulting in network outages. These outages have caused network delays due to terminal and main line congestion with trains holding in multiple locations. Customers with shipments around the affected areas can expect delays of 48 to 72 hours. This congestion will likely cause service impacts to customers even in areas not directly affected by flooding.

Updates on the various subdivisions impacted are as follows.

New Outage

  • River Subdivision (Kansas City to Jefferson City, Missouri) — Estimated time of opening is later this week. Customers on this subdivision have been embargoed.

Continued Outage

  • Sparta Subdivision (Ellis Grove to Coulterville, Illinois) — Estimated time of opening is projected for later this week.

Returned to Service

  • Pinckneyville Subdivision (out of service near Chester, Illinois)

Closely Monitoring
We continue to monitor areas affected by heavy rains, flooding and levee breaches across our network. Resources are staged at strategic locations along our network to ensure outages are addressed and repaired as quickly as possible.  

Embargo Information
In light of the significant increase in embargoes due to the flooding and in order to prepare for the upcoming hurricane season, please be sure to sign up to receive Union Pacific embargo hold notices by logging into our notification dashboard (user ID and password required) and selecting Embargo Hold. You may also sign up to receive all AAR embargoes. By subscribing, you will be notified when your rail car(s) is subject to an active embargo and will provide you detailed information on what action is required.

Please note, original billing to an embargoed destination must always be submitted with a valid embargo permit. If a valid embargo permit has not been obtained, please discontinue billing to the embargoed destination until a valid embargo permit is acquired or the embargo has been lifted. If an embargoed rail car is billed without a valid embargo permit, Union Pacific reserves the right to send the rail car(s) back to origin. 

If you have any questions, please contact Customer Care & Support at 800-272-8777 or your Union Pacific representative.