Winter Weather Planning and Recovery
- For current news impacting our rail network, view Customer News now.
- Review our current embargoes to see if your area is impacted.
Union Pacific has established the following best practices to follow during winter weather events.
Be Prepared
- Ensure key headquarters and plant personnel are registered with a MyUPRR user ID and password. This will allow access to open a case in Case Management and enables sign-up for important Union Pacific notifications. Register for a MyUPRR user ID and password now.
- Once set up with a MyUPRR user ID and password, sign up for Marketing Notifications > Customer News notifications to receive winter weather updates by email.
Best Practices to Follow
Follow these tips to avoid Not Prepared for Service charges and avoid derailments.
- Clean inside flange-way of rail to prevent road crossing derailments.
- Clear snow and ice from tracks and switches to help prevent derailments.
- Clear snow and ice from the right of way area next to the tracks to assure crews will be able to safely switch your location.
- Remove ice and snow in walkways.
- Continue to clear snow and ice throughout a winter storm. Clearing once may not be sufficient if winds blow snow back onto tracks, switches, right of ways and walkways.
- View more tips on a comprehensive Winter Weather Checklist.
Notify Union Pacific
To provide Union Pacific information on your facility operations, open a case in Case Management (user ID and password required). Select Create a Case in the Get Help box (without an equipment, train or car order) and select Facility Status Updates as the case reason. Please include the information outlined below in the Description Field.
- The timetable for ceasing plant operations.
- Damage or tracks out of service.
- Estimated facility repair time.
- Resumption of operations.
- Request for service when repairs complete.
Additionally, notify us of special requirements, including unit train and special switch requirements by opening a case in Case Management (user ID and password required). Please choose Special Requests as your case reason and choose either Request Special Switch or Request Special Train as the corresponding sub-reason.