KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Union Pacific dedicated its new Kansas City Intermodal Terminal with a ribbon-cutting today — and high hopes for boosting volume in a key intermodal market.
The facility, located in Armourdale Yard, has twice the capacity as the old terminal in Neff Yard. It’s located in an expanding regional logistics hub, with better access to area highways, including state Highway 69 and Interstates 435 and 70. Beyond the Kansas City metro area, the new terminal serves customers elsewhere in Missouri, plus neighboring Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska.
UP has spent $1.4 billion to expand its intermodal capacity and gate technology over the past three years, and since 2021 added new terminals in California’s Inland Empire, the Twin Cities, Phoenix, and now Kansas City, which opened last month.
“Union Pacific is fully committed to the intermodal network,” Kenny Rocker, the railroad’s executive vice president of marketing and sales, told Trains this week.
The Kansas City terminal handles both domestic and international container loads of consumer goods, grain, refrigerated products, and auto parts.
UP currently offers domestic intermodal service linking Kansas City with Los Angeles, Northern California, Salt Lake City, Portland, Ore., and Seattle. International service connects Kansas City with ports in Houston, California, and the Pacific Northwest.
With the opening of the terminal, K.C.-L.A. domestic service has shifted from UP’s Intermodal Container Transfer Facility in Long Beach to the City of Industry terminal. The railroad also is offering its customers a hotshot Z-train ride that’s 25% faster than previous schedules. UP claims its 2.5-day transit time is up to 25 hours faster than “current industry options.”
Will UP launch new domestic service, such as Kansas City to Houston or destinations in Mexico?
Rocker says Kansas City is an important market for UP and its intermodal customers. “It’s right up there, right behind some of the bread and butter lanes, like L.A.-Chicago, PNW-Chicago,” he says.
“ The potential is just so great, which is why we’ve made the investment in it,” he adds. “We see long-term and immediate potential from all different markets.”
Among them: Agricultural products including grain and frozen meat, much like the westbound loads that originate at UP’s intermodal terminal in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
“We’ve got great relationships with the ag customers, and we have a good line of sight on the opportunities in the Midwest, and … we’ve been able to take advantage of them,” Rocker says.
The Kansas City terminal features UP’s Precision Gate Technology, which provides truckers with fast, touchless access to the terminal, while the UPGo app pinpoints the location of containers and parking spots.
The terminal’s first phase includes two working tracks, container parking stalls, a chassis lot, and two additional working tracks that can be used to handle surge volume. The terminal offers stacked international and wheeled domestic container operations.
UP says it has room to expand the facility as demand warrants.
