LOWELL, Ark. — J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. announced the addition of Patrick Ottensmeyer to its board of directors. Effective Jan. 12, 2024, the former Kansas City Southern CEO will serve on the board’s Compensation Committee and Nominating and Governance Committee, according to a recent news release. Beginning in 2006, Ottensmeyer held multiple leadership roles […]
A railroad webcam captured dramatic video and audio of a Canadian Pacific Kansas City merchandise train that stalled on a grade in Iowa on Friday — and then began rolling back downgrade toward a BNSF Railway train that was occupying the at-grade junction of the two main lines in Ottumwa. After a few tense minutes, […]
LOMBARD, Ill. — One final batch of notes from this week’s Midwest Association of Rail Shippers Winter Meeting, marking the organization’s 100th anniversary: Blending cultures Merging railroads can be difficult, simply as a matter of blending cultures. The Penn Central merger famously was hindered by the clashing views of longtime competitors Pennsylvania and New York […]
Last year’s merger of Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern, the two smallest Class I systems, has turned out to be the little spark that has ignited a lot of railroad competition. Skeptics have scoffed at Canadian Pacific Kansas City’s meandering route from the Midwest to the Mexican border at Laredo, Texas. It’s got more […]
LOMBARD, Ill. — The man behind the rail industry’s burst of cooperative competition (or, if you prefer, competitive cooperation) came to the Midwest Association of Rail Shippers Winter Meeting — an event focusing a lot of attention on such alliances — and said it was all good. Understandably, CPKC CEO Keith Creel said his company’s […]
The Panama Canal Railway, which saw a 20% increase in container traffic last summer due to drought conditions affecting water levels in the Panama Canal, got another boost this week. Maersk, the largest container shipping line, announced yesterday that shipments bound to and from Australia and New Zealand are being diverted to the Panama Canal […]
You know it’s been a big news year when the first merger of Class I railroads in more than two decades — and likely the last — is judged the No. 3 story of 2023. In a typical year, Canadian Pacific’s $31 billion acquisition of Kansas City Southern would have topped the headlines. The Surface […]
Canadian National, Canadian Pacific Kansas City, and Union Pacific have been named to the World and North America Dow Jones Sustainability indices released earlier this month, while CSX is on the North America list. For CN, it was the 12th consecutive year on the world list and 15th on the North America list. CPKC’s inclusion […]
CALGARY — The CPKC Holiday train raised a record C$1.8 milion and collected more than 160,000 pounds of food for local food banks during four weeks of travel across the United States and Canada, the railroad has announced. The Holiday Train program, which has completed its 25th year, raised more than $24.3 million and collected […]
FORT WORTH, Texas — BNSF Railway will use a permit system to prevent congestion once the Eagle Pass and El Paso, Texas, rail border crossings are reopened. The bridges over the Rio Grande have been shut down since Monday as customs officials divert personnel to process a surge of migrants who have entered the country […]
WASHINGTON — The temporary shutdown of the U.S.-Mexico railroad border crossings at Eagle Pass and El Paso, Texas, has thrown a kink into supply chains that demand reliability. Eagle Pass and El Paso are the No. 2 and No. 3 rail gateways by volume, respectively. Union Pacific says the closure has prompted it to place […]
MEXICO CITY — The Mexican Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation and the state of Nuevo Leon have reached an agreement with Canadian Pacific Kansas City Southern de Mexico to study commuter service in the Monterrey area. CPKC de Mexico has committed to providing information to the government agencies, a railway spokesman said today. Mexican […]
