Starting 2 June, a new intermodal service will offer a connection from the Barbours Cut Container Terminal at the Port of Houston to inland facilities in Texas and Denver. The railroad offering this service is the United States Class I railroad BNSF in response to growing demand at the Port of Houston.

East and Gulf Coast ports have been benefiting from the lagging contract talks on the West Coast. Shippers fearing unexpected labour-related disruption continue to divert their cargo to other US ports, including the Port of New York and New Jersey and the Port of Houston.

The Journal of Commerce (JOC) reported that BNSF has been testing the market demand for rail service around Houston. The railroad's announcement issued Monday, 15 May, revealed the detail of the new service, which – according to BNSF - “will begin to be offered to/from the Barbours Cut Container Terminal to our Alliance, Texas Intermodal Facility, as well as from Barbours Cut to our Denver Intermodal Facility, beginning Friday, June 2, 2023.”

“These two new lanes of service should have a positive impact on our customers,” comments Craig Daun, Kuehne + Nagel’s Vice President of Road Logistics based in Illinois. “Direct service into Denver and Dallas should allow for reduced inland transit times for shipments brought into the growing port of Houston,” he adds.

The low demand seen in March 2019 pushed the Union Pacific, another Class I railroad in the US, to end its weekly service from Houston to Dallas. No regular intermodal service has been offered in Houston since then, according to JOC. However, the demand surge during the pandemic prompted the need for more services.