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During the past few years, Union Pacific Railroad has added and upgraded track, terminals and other infrastructure to boost intermodal capacity and improve on-time performance, which now is at an all-time high, according to the Class I.

For example, an intermodal ramp UP opened last year in San Antonio has shortened transit time between northern Mexico and Los Angeles by two days.

The Class I also has strived to improve operations. Recent network routing upgrades have reduced mileage and prevented congestion in certain lanes, such as a northern California-to-Dallas route that’s more than 1,000 miles shorter and takes 30 fewer hours to travel through compared with a previous route.

In addition, UP has introduced several intermodal services, including one along the Interstate-5 corridor from L.A. to Tacoma, Wash., and another from San Antonio and Laredo, Texas, to California and the Midwest. The railroad plans to add a new Southeast service later this summer.

The infrastructure, network and service improvements are helping UP increase intermodal business, said Vice President and General Manager of Intermodal John Kaiser in a prepared statement.

Meanwhile, Ports America officials are hoping a new Pacer International service will boost business at the Puerta México Intermodal Facility in Toluca, Mexico. In May, Pacer launched six-day-per-week direct rail service to and from the terminal to handle automotive, third-party domestic and other trans-border traffic.

The non-stop, in-bond service parallels Pacer's existing PacerMex ramp points throughout the United States and eastern Canada.

Operated by Ports America, the Toluca terminal is designed to handle 150,000 containers and 2 million tons of cargo annually. The facility has direct access to Kansas City Southern de México S.A. de C.V.’s “N” line.