Principal connections with other carriers include the Norfolk Southern at Streator and the CSX Blue Island Subdivision in Chicago near Corwith.
As a former AT&SF route, mileposts are counted from the former Dearborn Station in Chicago although track was abandoned east of the CSX connection in 1996.
[6] This project was completed as part of the Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency Program (CREATE) Western Avenue corridor designed to align rail movements through the city along Western Avenue [7] Traffic on the line is dominated by intermodal traffic flowing to and from the three yards in Chicago in a mixture of high priority "Z-Trains" with freight from UPS, FedEx Ground and LTL trucking firms; "Q-Trains" guaranteed intermodal with primarily domestic shippers like JB Hunt and Schneider frequently seen; and lower priority "S-Trains" with ocean containers.
Intermodal trains can frequently be quite long with consists up to 16,000 feet being run on the Southern Transcon route since it is predominantly doubletracked across its entire length.
The Union Pacific has trackage rights over BNSF lines from Chicago to Kansas City and uses the Chillicothe Subdivision to reach its Global 4 intermodal facility near Joliet, Illinois.