Intermodal Network Update for Friday, August 14, 2026

Operational Performance
Earlier this week, a series of severe weather events impacted large portions of the Southern Transcon, BNSF's primary route between Southern California and the Midwest. On Monday, high winds contributed to derailments on the Needles Subdivision 65 miles southeast of Barstow in Southern California, while on Tuesday, high winds caused a derailment on the Chillicothe Subdivision southwest of Chicago. By midweek, heavy rainfall and flash flooding resulted in a washout on the Seligman Subdivision in northern Arizona. Additional storm-related impacts, including downed trees and localized power outages, temporarily disrupted rail operations and activity at several intermodal facilities in the Chicago area, including Corwith, Willow Springs, Cicero and Logistics Park Chicago (LPC).

These events disrupted traffic flows across portions of the network as trains were held and staged during restoration efforts, creating congestion across the Southern Transcon and causing delays. Operating teams responded quickly to restore service, though additional severe weather during the recovery period slowed restoration efforts in some areas. A 24/7 Command Center was established and remains active to coordinate recovery efforts, support traffic planning and aid service normalization across impacted corridors. The affected rail routes have since been restored to service, though some residual delays are expected as BNSF works through traffic backlogs and normalizes operations across the impacted corridors.

Despite these disruptions, overall network performance remained strong throughout the latest reporting period. Car velocity and terminal dwell both improved versus the prior week, with dwell also down 2% compared with the prior month, and local service compliance exceeded 91%.

Service Expectations for the Week Ahead
Looking ahead, elevated temperatures are expected to continue across parts of the Central and Southern Plains through much of next week, with higher temperatures also possible across the Desert Southwest. Scattered thunderstorms may bring localized heavy rainfall and flash flooding to portions of the Midwest and central High Plains, including eastern Colorado and western Kansas. BNSF teams will continue monitoring conditions and adjust operations as needed to support safe, reliable service.

As always, we thank you for your business and appreciate the opportunity to serve as your transportation service provider. We welcome your feedback and questions.