Union Pacific Hosts Business Development Gathering for Short Line and Port Partners

Union Pacific Railroad and its short line railroad and port partners recently gathered in Omaha, Nebraska, for face-to-face working meetings focused squarely on exploring new opportunities for growth.

More than 100 representatives from the ports and short lines attended the Business Development Day at Union Pacific's headquarters, which featured an overview of industry trends by Union Pacific senior leaders, followed by meetings with Union Pacific's Marketing and Sales representatives.

"We greatly appreciate Union Pacific facilitating this event, which is always extremely productive. These one-on-one meetings are a great way to discuss and develop opportunities that help us grow our future together," said Matt Cundiff, president of Ironhorse Resources Inc., the owner and operator of multiple short line railroads.

Union Pacific connects directly with approximately 200 short line railroads, extending the Class 1 railroad's 32,000-mile network by about 20,000 miles. The railroad also connects indirectly with an additional 350-plus short lines that interchange with another railroad before the cars eventually connect with Union Pacific.

In all, one out of every four cars that Union Pacific transports traveled at one point in time during its journey on a short line railroad.

"Our short line and port partners are a critical extension of our network, providing immense value to our current customers and golden opportunities to those shippers looking to access our nation's premier rail network," said Dan McLaughlin, assistant vice president-Marketing and Sales for Union Pacific. "We have a cooperative, complementary relationship and understand that when one grows, we all grow together."

The Business Development Day at Union Pacific is an annual event that kicked off with an evening reception and welcome address by Union Pacific CEO Jim Vena. Participants also heard from Union Pacific President Beth Whited and Executive Vice President-Marketing and Sales Kenny Rocker.

The gathering was less a conference than a working meeting, where short line railroad and port representatives met in person with different commodity experts from Union Pacific's Marketing and Sales team.

"We're proud of our relationship with our partners and energized by the work happening together to build our businesses and find new opportunities to convert truck traffic to rail," McLaughlin said.

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.