UP temporarily stopping eastbound container service to Chicago

Union Pacific is temporarily suspending eastbound service from West Coast port terminals to its Global IV intermodal facility in Chicago to help ease “significant congestion” at inland terminals, especially Chicago, and at the ports. The suspension is aimed at helping ocean carriers reduce backlogs.

Stopping traffic eastbound to ease congestion on west coast ports? Yeah, that doesn’t make any sense to me, either. *Maybe* they mean that trains that otherwise would have taken the long road to Chicago are now going to spend their days on much shorter routes, thus hauling more stuff away from the ports faster. The stuff will just stack up at inland locations, though.

Perhaps the trains are just hauling containers *near* Chicago. There to offload them, fill them with rubble and debris, and build a wall around Cook County.