NEW YORK, Sept. 14 (Reuters) – Top US railroad Union Pacific Corp. is accelerating efforts to lure customers away from the rival trucking sector as it tries to boost rail volumes squeezed by the economic decline.

For example, the Omaha, Nebraska- based rail company, which operates across 23 states in the western United States, is introducing new unit trains to haul wind turbines, Union Pacific chief financial officer Robert Knight said in an interview.

Union Pacific is also marketing rail services to the used car market, including cars coming out of rental services, and building on an express service that moves fresh produce from coast to coast.

''We are in a spot where we think we can offer those unique niche services,'' said Knight. ''We see some opportunities out in front of us. We are knocking on doors of customers who historically have not been big rail customers.''

Rail industry executives have long been eyeing the trucking sector as a hunting ground for new customers and Union Pacific sees the current environment of excess capacity and improved reliability as a good time to push, Knight said.

Union Pacific is also continuing to make long-term capital expenditures, including a new $370-million intermodal terminal facility in the Chicago area.

Of its $2.6 billion in capital expenditures budgeted for 2009, about $500 million is aimed at growth and expansion.

Knight said the company was not retrenching, but he could not say whether capital expenditures would be higher or lower in 2010.

''We're very cautious in looking at those,'' he said.

As is the case with Union Pacific competitors, the company was still experiencing volume declines in every business category, but was seeing small signs of improvement. This was particularly evident in the chemical and automotive businesses, while intermodal was looking better in the third quarter as well.

Government incentives favoring ethanol should help boost business at the end of this year and into the next, while agricultural product movement was also expected to pick up following the fall harvest.

Knight said the federal government stimulus program aimed at boosting infrastructure construction was disappointing so far, with no upswing in building-related shipments materializing as expected.

The company is not yet disclosing its pricing outlook for 2010 as price increases this year hold between 5-6 percent generally.

Knight was encouraged Union Pacific was now running about 163,000 shipments a week, up from 140,000, its low earlier in the year. But that is still well off last year's volume of 185,000 shipments a week in the third quarter and capacity of close to 200,000.

''We see things improving. But we're a long way from getting back to the environment where everything was humming and everything was clicking,'' Knight added.