Railex LLC was a refrigerated rail service and

third-party logistics Third-party logistics (abbreviated as 3PL, or TPL) in logistics and supply chain management is an organization's use of third-party businesses to outsource elements of its distribution, warehousing, and fulfillment services. Third-party logistic ...

provider that transported fruits, vegetables and other temperature sensitive cargo across the United States, in partnership with the

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

and

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

. In 2006, Railex launched service between

Wallula, Washington Wallula () is a census-designated place (CDP) in Walla Walla County, Washington, United States. The population was 179 at the 2010 census. History The Lewis and Clark Expedition reached this area April 27, 1806, on their return journey from the P ...

, and

Rotterdam, New York Rotterdam is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Schenectady County, New York, Schenectady County, New York (state), New York, United States. The population was 30,523 at the 2020 census. The town of Rotterdam is in the south-ce ...

, followed in 2008 by a

Delano, California Delano ( ) is a city in Kern County, California, United States. Delano is located north-northwest of Bakersfield at an elevation of . The population was 51,428 in 2020, down from 53,041 in 2010. It is Kern County's second-largest city after Ba ...

to NY lane. Railex ran

unit train A unit train, also called a block train or a trainload service, is a train in which all cars (wagons) carry the same commodity and are shipped from the same origin to the same destination, without being split up or stored en route. They are disti ...

s of 55 large, "plate F" refrigerated cars and promised regularly scheduled departures and arrivals on a five-day service schedule. It claimed reduced carbon emissions when compared to conventional trucking. In June 2014, Railex opened a new facility in

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the seat of Duval County, with which the ...

, with service from the west coast. In 2017, Union Pacific acquired Railex's cold storage facilities and terminals at Delano, California, Wallula, Washington, and Rotterdam, New York (but not its wine unit, Railex Wine Services LLC, now known as

Northwest Wine Services The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

). In May 2020, Union Pacific discontinued both services. Railex's system was based on palletized cargo, which was loaded and unloaded indoors in temperature controlled docks that preserved a

cold chain A cold chain is a low temperature-controlled supply chain network. An unbroken cold chain is an uninterrupted series of refrigerated production, storage and distribution activities, along with associated equipment and logistics, which maintain qu ...

for the cargo. It also provided warehousing and could handle less-than-truckload (LTL) shipments.

Competition

Two additional refrigerated train services were announced in 2013, the Green Express, from

Tampa, Florida Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and ...

Kingsbury, Indiana Kingsbury is a town in Washington Township, LaPorte County, Indiana, just northwest of the intersection of U.S. Route 35 and U.S. Route 6. The town was founded in 1835 and incorporated on March 3, 1941. During 1940 - 1941, the Kingsbury Ordnance ...

, operated by CSX and the Tampa Port Authority, and the TransCold Express operated by McKay Transcold, LLC and BNSF, connecting the

California Central Valley The Central Valley is a broad, elongated, flat valley that dominates the interior of California. It is wide and runs approximately from north-northwest to south-southeast, inland from and parallel to the Pacific coast of the state. It covers ...

with the midwest.

References

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External links

Railex the Refrigerated Unit Train in partnership with the CSX and Union Pacific Railroads
{{CSX Corporation Refrigerator car lines of the United States CSX Transportation Union Pacific Railroad Transportation in New York (state) Railway services introduced in 2006

Competition

See also

References

External links