This article has been reprinted from the June 6 USDA Grain Transportation Report.
Railroads are also dealing with the effects of flooding. In a customer announcement dated June 3, Union Pacific Railroad (UP) reported, “severe weather, heavy rainfall and flooding continue to impact operations in Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas, resulting in…new, prolonged, and expanded subdivision outages.”
Outages are affecting the route from North Little Rock, AR, to Coffeyville, KS, and the route between Jefferson City and Kansas City, MO.
UP has restored service to its Oklahoma City Subdivision.
Service is interrupted through Kansas City Southern Railway’s Roadhouse Subdivision (near Louisiana, MO), affecting traffic on its east-west route.
On June 4, Norfolk Southern Railway (NS) alerted customers that its operations to and from Kansas City have been “severely impact[ed].”
Traffic is embargoed on inbound traffic to Kansas City but outbound traffic remains open. NS anticipates full track restoration “to take several weeks.”
BNSF Railway has restored service in several locations but is dealing with multiple levee breaches in Missouri, per its May 31 service advisory.
While railroads are re-routing and detouring traffic where possible to minimize disruptions, shippers should continue to expect delays in affected areas.