Status of the Railroad - A Message from Kenny Rocker, EVP, Marketing & Sales
Announcement Number: CN2024-11
Categories: General Announcements
Posted Date: May 23, 2024
To Our Customers,
The start of summer is almost here and I’m looking forward to spending time with my family as the school year ends. I have some customer meetings planned for June and will be anxious to collaborate on how we can continue to grow together. We’ve zeroed in on finding new ways to meet your needs — while providing a safe and reliable product.
We continue to drive improvements in our safety performance. Through April, our year-over-year reportable derailment rate was the best we’ve achieved in more than 10 years. Operating performance in April was also sustained as our key service metrics at the system level remained strong.
- Freight car velocity at 202 miles per day, holding steady compared to last year.
- Intermodal Service Performance Index at 100%, improving 12 points year-over-year.
- Manifest/Auto Service Performance Index at 87%, up 7 points compared to last year.
The network is fluid and resilient, demonstrated by the great teamwork across the railroad. Our Operating and Engineering teams successfully navigated through the challenges we faced with the severe storms this month by positioning resources and coordinating internal operations to mitigate impacts across the network. Just this week, crews worked to quickly recover from tornadoes, heavy rain and flash flooding across Nebraska and Iowa. Southeast Texas saw heavy spring rains that caused widespread flooding and rivers to reach levels we haven’t seen since 2017. I’m proud of their efforts to restore operations as quickly and safely as possible for our customers.
Driving Sustainable Transportation Solutions
We recently published our Building America Report, which highlights our progress on key goals, including safety and sustainability.
We never compromise when it comes to safety. In 2023, we improved on our following key safety metrics:
- Reduced year-over-year serious injuries by 15% from 2022.
- Decreased reportable derailment rate by 6% compared with 2022.
- Over the past 10 years, track-related derailments declined 28%.
On the sustainability front, we continue to make progress toward our climate action goals and have reduced our Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 19% over the past six years. One of many near-term strategies is focused on increasing the use of renewable biofuels in our locomotives. In 2023, we continued to make progress by increasing our consumption of low-carbon fuels to 6.1% of total diesel used, up from 4.5% in 2022. To drive long-term decarbonization, we are committed to testing new locomotive technologies. One notable highlight is our partnership with ZTR, a leading rail technology company, to design and build six hybrid-electric locomotives, with the first locomotive deployed for testing this month. This innovative locomotive will run similarly to a hybrid car – blending diesel and battery power and aims for 80% less fuel consumption.
As Union Pacific continues its efforts to build a more sustainable future, our team is ready to help you achieve your sustainability goals by offering lower carbon transportation solutions. In 2023, we estimated that our customers avoided approximately 22.5 million metric tons of GHG emissions by choosing rail transportation over trucks. This is equivalent to preserving over 144,000 acres of U.S. forests from conversion to cropland in one year. To run your own comparisons on the carbon footprint of your rail shipments with us, please use our Carbon Emissions Estimator tool.
Thank You
Thank you for choosing Union Pacific as your trusted transportation provider. We truly appreciate your business and look forward to growing with you. I hope you and your families have a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend.
Sincerely,
Kenny Rocker
Executive Vice President, Marketing & Sales