Our Great Lakes Division teams are improving productivity and speed of delivery for our customers. As part of these efforts, two leaders at our Toledo Terminal in Ohio took a new approach to solve an ongoing challenge.

Toledo Terminal Managers Wayne Lewis and Andrew Lumpp worked with Ann Arbor Railroad to develop a solution to reduce train switching. The Class III rail restructured their train classification codes, which reduced the amount of switching required. Train dwell time has declined, and trains are moving faster.

With the time saved, our Toledo crew members can now switch out more trains bound for our Elkhart Terminal. Previously, this traffic moved to our Moorman Yard in Bellevue, Ohio before being routed to Elkhart.

Since October, productivity has improved across multiple key metrics, including:

• Ann Arbor Rail cars going to Elkhart 23 hours faster and requiring 45 less cars handled per day.
• Over 8,000 miles of daily car travel are saved, along with 89 fewer switchings.
• An average of 40 fewer cars now travel to Bellevue each day, increasing the yard’s capacity.  

“Wayne and Andrew’s efforts are a true testament of coming up with solutions that allow us to provide an even higher level of safe, reliable, and resilient service to our customers,” said Rob Sarver, Great Lakes Division Superintendent. “Both took the time to focus on what mattered and made a significant difference.”