The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company, Fort Worth, Texas, launched a service to compete with cross-border trucking.

BNSF's new Mexi-Modal intermodal service creates a seamless transportation network connecting major markets in Mexico, the U.S. and Canada. BNSF coordinates the entire transborder shipping process, door-to-door, through cooperation with Canadian National Railway Company, Transportacion Ferroviaria Mexicana and several Mexican trucking companies.
"Mexi-Modal is the solution to decades of difficulties for companies that have used over-the-road carriers to transport goods to or from Mexico, as well as those that have avoided transborder commerce entirely because of the cumbersome process," said Richard Miller, assistant vice president, BNSF Mexico Business.
BNSF's Mexi-Modal service consists of three distinct products:

• MidBridge -- This product mirrors how most transborder truck transportation into and out of Mexico is conducted today, by allowing the purchase of products to occur at the "middle of the bridge" between Laredo, Texas and Mexico. MidBridge allows freight to be moved by rail in the U.S. and Canada and by truck in Mexico.

• Laredo -- This product allows a customer to move full truckload freight from the U.S. or Canada by rail either to or from a designated warehouse in Laredo, Texas -- enabling customers to store freight in Laredo, Texas for warehousing.

• MexiStack -- This all-rail product allows the purchase of goods to occur at the U.S., Canadian or Mexican origin or destination. North of the border the customer's freight is moved by BNSF or CN, and by TFM in Mexico.