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CSX Transportation and Union Pacific Railroad have launched a perishable produce service between California and New York.

Yesterday, the first train carrying 55 refrigerated box cars loaded with citrus products, celery and carrots departed Delano, Calif., beginning a 3,300-mile, 128-hour trip to Schenectady, N.Y. UP will move the train to Chicago, then interchange with CSXT, which will complete the trip to a Schenectady refrigerated warehouse.

The service offers southern California perishables shippers a high-speed, reliable transportation alternative, CSXT and UP said. The service also will target other commodities — such as cheese and frozen food — heading to East Coast markets. Each train carries the same amount of produce and perishable items that would be moved by more than 200 trucks, saving 100,000 gallons of diesel per total shipment.

"What is exciting about this new service is that we're carrying produce, such as peppers, grapes and celery, that we haven't carried in rail cars since they built the interstate highway system," said John Philp, UP assistant vice president-food and refrigerated products, in a prepared statement.

The California-to-New York train follows a produce unit-train service CSXT and UP launched in October 2006 between Wallula, Wash., and Schenectady. The Class Is marked that service's 100th produce train in September.