Rail service appears to have gotten back on track after a long period of service problems related to industry merger woes. At least that's what the composite customer satisfaction score for standard rail service indicates. Two years ago, the overall number sat at 28.52. By this year, it had climbed to 31.33.

In fact, four of the five rating categories showed improvement: Grades for on-time performance, value, information technology and customer service all rose. Only the rating for equipment and operations slipped.

This year, our readers awarded accolades to five carriers for their standard rail service: the Wisconsin Central (now a division of Canadian National), Florida East Coast, Canadian National and Burlington Northern Santa Fe, all of which were honored last year as well. They were joined by newcomer CSX Transportation.

Readers also hailed six intermodal marketing companies for their quality service. Capturing gold medals this year were GST Corp., Clipper Exxpress, Landstar Logistics, C.H. Robinson, Matson Intermodal and Hub Group. Despite this relatively large number of winners, this was the only category in the rail/intermodal group to see a decrease in its composite customer satisfaction score, which dipped to 32.36 this year from 32.62 last year. Grades for information technology, customer service, and equipment and operations all dropped.

When it came to intermodal service providers, our readers recognized the same companies they singled out for accolades last year. In the winners circle once again were Triple Crown (NS/Conrail), CSX Intermodal and Burlington Northern Santa Fe.

The intermodal service providers' overall customer satisfaction score improved as well, heading up to 32.34 this year from 31.51 last year. Scores rose in four out of five categories: on-time performance, value, customer service, and equipment and operations. Only the number for information technology slipped.