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Because Express Lane traffic is growing, Union Pacific Railroad plans to purchase 500 refrigerated cars from Trinity Industries Inc. and upgrade more than 2,600 refrigerated box cars.


In summer, UP expects to begin taking delivery of the cars, which hold up to 40 percent more product compared with other refrigerated cars, and are designed to retrieve temperature and fresh-air exchange data via satellite.


UP annually moves more than 48,000 carloads of refrigerated and frozen food products, including fruits, vegetables, french fries, meat, poultry and dairy items. The Class I operates about 5,000 refrigerated cars.


In April 2000, UP and CSX Transportation launched Express Lane, which is designed to combine UP's refrigerated box-car fleet and West Coast produce-shipper access with CSXT's service to large eastern consumer markets. For the past three years, the Class Is have increased their annual perishable shipments more than 10 percent.