Norfolk Southern Corporation has put into service the first of the new Uni-Level railcars supplied by TTX Company. Last week, Norfolk Southern loaded the first 13 of 55 Uni-Level cars received from TTX, officially launching the railroad's Uni-Level service network.

The fully enclosed Uni-Level railcar is designed to provide economical rail transportation of large motorized vehicles, including Class 5-8 trucks and recreational vehicles. Transporting these types of vehicles in a Uni-Level car helps ensure that the vehicles will arrive at their distributors in factory-quality condition and will not require re-work, as is typically the case with over-the-road transportation. Prototypes of the Uni-Level railcar have been tested successfully in the marketplace over the past three years.

Norfolk Southern's Automotive Group and Modalgistics Supply Chain Services will provide dock-to-dock shipment management to Uni-Level users through their Load Planning, Web-Based VIN Visibility, Optimized Mode Selection, and Strategic Network Design services.

The initial Uni-Level service network will be concentrated on local NS service lanes, with later expansion into Mexico, Canada, and the West Coast.