Winter Weather Recovery Efforts Continue

Announcement Number: CN2019-11
Categories: General Announcements
Posted Date: March 6, 2019

To Our Customers,
 
Following are updates regarding the areas where winter weather has impacted our operations this week.
 
Midwest
Harsh weather conditions continue to impact our operations in Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois. Despite record-breaking, sub-zero temperatures over the past several days, crews continue to make gradual progress to restore service to normal levels. However, we are preparing for more severe weather expected tomorrow through the weekend across areas of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska and Iowa. These storms are expected to bring frigid temperatures, high wind gusts and more snow to the region.
 
In addition, the following incidents that occurred in the past 48 hours are currently affecting progress:
  • Two derailments in western Nebraska are impacting coal shipments to the Powder River Basin. Crews are working to make repairs and service is expected to resume this evening. Customers with shipments moving through this corridor can anticipate some delays as we work off the backlog of traffic.
  • In Iowa, a derailment impacted our ability to move trains between Des Moines and Mason City. Crews have made repairs and operations have resumed.
  • Snow drifts along our major corridor between St. Paul, Minnesota and Mason City, Iowa continue to cause congestion and delays. Resources have been deployed and crews are working to clear snow from the tracks.
Customers with rail shipments moving through St. Paul and Mankato, Minnesota, and Mason City and Des Moines, Iowa, can expect delays between 24 and 48 hours. 
 
Pacific Northwest
Early last week, our rail line near Oakridge, Oregon, received unprecedented snowfall resulting in hundreds of trees falling onto our tracks. The rail lines were reopened on February 26, but the recovery process proved to be challenging as our crews continued to remove additional trees and snow to restore service. Our rail lines throughout central Oregon have remained open over the past several days and service has resumed to normal levels.
 
Northern California
We made final repairs to a large sinkhole near Paradise, California, in the Feather River Canyon last week. Shortly thereafter, we experienced another setback as a new section of track began sinking over the past weekend. Crews made additional repairs and inspected the entire segment of track addressing any potential problem areas that they could find.  
 
We have also been working diligently to keep our rail lines near Donner Pass clear of snow in order to safely move trains between Roseville, California, and Salt Lake City, Utah. 
 
Across northern California, crews are positioning resources to manage the impact of more rain and snow moving through the region today and into the evening. We will provide additional updates if necessary. 
 
Please refer to our Winter Operations Information and the best practices to follow.

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

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