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Wednesday, Sep. 30, 1998
Chemical shippers returning to UP slowly, company says
Customers: Service better in Corpus Christi, Gulf Coast
By TERRI LANGFORD
Associated PressHOUSTON -- Union Pacific Corp.'s chemical shippers, who fled to other means of transport when track congestion sidelined the rail giant, are slowly coming back, company president Dick Davidson said Tuesday.
``Our chemical loadings are increasing day by day by day,'' said Davidson, who was in Houston attending a railroad customer forum. ``They've kind of taken a wait-and-see attitude to see if the service recovery is for real before they start returning the business to us, and I think every day they're more and more convinced it's for real.''
Irritated with transport delays caused by Union Pacific's 1997 rail gridlock, frustrated chemical shippers turned to the company's rail rivals, trucking companies and shipping lines to get their product to and from area plants and refineries.
The Texas Gulf Coast was particularly hard-hit during last year's tie-ups, as UP controls 85 percent of the 200 miles of track in Houston.
A flurry of lawsuits were filed against the Dallas-based company claiming UP's clumsy merger with Southern Pacific was to blame and that Union Pacific was receiving payment for service it couldn't deliver in a timely manner.
While many of the lawsuits, including those filed by Dow Chemical Co. and DuPont, have been settled, a handful are still pending.
(Service in the Corpus Christi area has improved significantly, said John LaRue, executive director of the Port of Corpus Christi.
(For example, Elementis Chromium, formerly American Chrome and Chemicals, shipped 35 rail cars in July, the most it had shipped since April 1997. During the worst months of rail service -- August, September and October of last year -- Elementis was shipping fewer than 20 cars a month.)
UP's rail service continues to improve through several measures taken by the company, Davidson said. Transport times are close to or better than pre-merger times, he said. For instance, transport from Houston to Salem, N.C., or St. Louis is now 2.6 days compared to a pre-merger time of 3.5 days.
However, there are some routes that are still slow. Trains from Houston to Chicago take an average of 5.5 days compared with 5.1 days before.
``Our service with them has improved,'' said Diane Currie, spokeswoman for DuPont, which settled its suit with Union Pacific in June. ``We were very encouraged with the progress Union Pacific has made on our main corridors, which would be Texas to the Carolinas. Service is very close to normal.''
Caller-Times staff writer Glaston Ford contributed to this report. He can be reached at 886-3678 or by e-mail at fordg@scripps.comPost your comments about local news eventsFront Page || Main Index || News || Business || Texas || South Texas Outdoors || Birdwatching || Sports || Entertainment || Selena || Education || South Texas Attractions || World Wide Web