September 11th, 2025 – Canadian National Railway (CN) and CSX Transportation are teaming up to launch a new international intermodal service linking Canada’s West Coast to Nashville, expanding shipper options beyond the U.S. Southeast.
The two Class I railroads signed a memorandum of understanding to establish a more direct, faster route that offers an alternative to moving cargo through Savannah. The initiative follows a broader trend of increased collaboration among railroads, highlighted by the planned transcontinental merger of Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern, which would create North America’s largest railroad.
Currently, CN provides intermodal service from Vancouver to Memphis, but not Nashville. The new service would eliminate the need for an approximately 200-mile truck haul between the two cities by shifting containers onto CSX tracks.
On average, about 20,000 ocean containers move annually by rail from Vancouver to Memphis, according to a Journal of Commerce analysis of U.S. Surface Transportation Board data, though relatively little export cargo flows back in the other direction. It is not clear how many containers remain in Memphis versus being trucked onward to Nashville.
CSX’s Nashville terminal already handles inbound international volumes from Los Angeles, Seattle-Tacoma, Savannah, and Charleston, with outbound moves to Savannah and Charleston. In August, CSX also announced plans with BNSF Railway to develop additional West Coast–to–Southeast intermodal corridors.
