Meeting in the middle is great in most scenarios – but a railroad bridge straddling the international border between the U.S. and Mexico is not one of them.
Subscribe to Inside Track
As part of a border security initiative, Union Pacific Railroad tested a new interchange process that enables Mexico-based crews to travel a short distance into the U.S. to hand off and receive trains at its Eagle Pass, Texas, yard.
“This new crew change location improves safety and security by reducing the amount of time trains are stopped on the single-track bridge,” said Rick Lichtas, assistant vice president-Network and Capital Planning. “It also improves the fluidity of the interchange process, making our service product more competitive.”
The new interchange was requested by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) as part of the federal government’s Secure Corridor Initiative.
The streamlined process would align Eagle Pass with other U.S. crossings where this is already common practice, including along the northern border with Canada and southern border in Laredo, Texas.
Currently in Eagle Pass, crew changes are conducted on the border’s busy, single-track railroad bridge. Trains come to a complete stop so the hand-off crew can disembark and walk back to their side of the border. For safety reasons, the train cannot proceed until the crew clears the bridge and CBP confirms it can proceed through the x-ray scanners.
The entire process can take 30 to 40 minutes, increasing the risk of blocked crossings, theft and vandalism.
During the recent pilot test, a crew from Ferromex – the largest railroad in Mexico – operated a northbound train from the bridge to Union Pacific’s nearest rail yard, located seven miles across the border. At the rail yard, officials from CBP met the Ferromex crew and reviewed their documentation. The Ferromex crew then boarded a southbound Union Pacific train and returned to their nearest yard in Mexico.
This process was monitored and controlled at the bilingual Command Center located in the Eagle Pass Depot. The participating Ferromex crews were trained by Union Pacific and certified under Federal Railroad Administration rules for the territory they operate in – the same certification as Union Pacific crews.
With the pilot successfully completed, Union Pacific now is working to finalize agreements with both Ferromex and CBP. Union Pacific crews will continue to be responsible for taking control of trains from across the border, building outbound trains and performing local service.
“Seamless transfers at the border enhance the rail industry’s ability to compete and remove trucks from the road,” Lichtas said. “Customers on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border will benefit from the improved security.”
;void(0))
