Elkhart Yard increases fluidity and adds capacity

Typically handling 1,800–1,900 cars daily, our rail yard in Elkhart, Indiana, plays a crucial role in keeping our network moving safely, efficiently, and quickly. By embracing an innovative approach to train movement, the team has significantly reduced dwell times and improved throughput, making the yard more agile and responsive to operational and customer needs.

The new strategy prioritizes moving all available traffic as soon as safely possible, rather than waiting for a later scheduled departure. While viewing every decision through the lens of safety, the team is running our connection plan, actively managing left-behind traffic, and looking ahead with an enterprise-level approach.

“The methodology change that we put in place was to move all traffic that's available today,” said Geoff Craker, Assistant Superintendent for the Great Lakes Division. “This enables our team to build the constructive tension needed to develop a standardized, repeatable service product. Once you start doing that, you reduce volume and congestion in the yard, reduce dwell, and increase connections.”

The Elkhart team has, in a short time, increased the yard’s connection performance from a historical 81% to an average of 90% daily. This translates to an additional 160 cars per day that are connecting on the right trains, on time, to reach their destination and service our customer. Additionally, this reduces left-behind traffic to create capacity for growth.  

This shift is not just about running trains on time, Craker added, it’s about being proactive and making more efficient decisions that benefit our railroad and customers. Compared to this time last year, the team has delivered:

• A significant drop in dwell time, now averaging ~10 hours
• Stronger train connections and improved origin performance
• Reduced congestion, keeping operations fluid and productive
• An 8% reduction in cost per car

“It takes all employees working safely and efficiently as one team, pulling in the same direction to make this successful,” Craker said.

While Elkhart’s scale makes these improvements particularly impactful, the same principles are being applied system wide, helping to improve throughput, reduce congestion, and strengthen performance across the entire network.

“I am extremely proud of the results that the Elkhart team has put forth in the second half of 2024 and the consistency of product into 2025,” said Sr. AVP Transportation Jas Pannu. “I am even more excited that this is just the beginning of what is possible as the team continues driving down costs and increasing capacity for future growth.”