Happy Birthday Union Pacific!
Union Pacific celebrates its 150th birthday this week, honoring decades of delivering superior service and transporting goods to American businesses and families. Established on July 1, 1862, with the signing of the Pacific Railway Act by President Abraham Lincoln, Union Pacific is the largest and most successful railroad network in the United States.
Union Pacific has supplied the country with logistics, global supply chain and freight solutions, helping businesses thrive for over a century. Through the past 150 years, the iconic company has remained a backbone for the economy by investing in the nation’s infrastructure.
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According to the company’s website, "Union Pacific delivers the goods American businesses and families use daily - everything from cars and clothes to sugar and lumber - and we help U.S. industries and companies compete in the global market by providing safe, reliable and environmentally responsible freight transportation," said Jack Koraleski, president and CEO. "We expanded President Lincoln's vision from using the railroad to link the east and the west to using the railroad to connect the U.S. to the world. Nearly 40 percent of our business is international in either origin or destination and we are the only North American railroad with access to all six major Mexico rail gateways."
Some of Union Pacific's ongoing transportation infrastructure projects include:
- Adding a second line of track along the Sunset Corridor, which runs from Los Angeles to El Paso, increasing the number of trains Union Pacific can operate along that important route that takes goods to and from Southern California to the Southeast.
- A $400 million intermodal and fueling facility in Santa Teresa, N.M. - and also on the Sunset Corridor - that will support increased rail traffic and even help increase freight capacity at some west coast ports.
- Approximately $500 million in capacity improvements and maintenance projects over the next several years in Louisiana to help America's agriculture, chemical and crude oil businesses grow.
- Investing nearly $300 million over the next several years on its Central Corridor through Blair, Neb., reducing by 25 miles the distance trains will need to travel around Omaha. Once completed, the Blair improvements will save two to four hours of travel time per train.
- Purchasing approximately 200 new locomotives this year - at cost of about $2 million or so each – equipped with the latest technology to increase fuel efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
