EAGLE PASS, Texas — Union Pacific last week began using international crews to handle interchange with Grupo Mexico’s Ferromex at the Eagle Pass gateway, the No. 2 U.S.-Mexico rail border crossing. The move shifts the interchange from the International Railway Bridge over the Rio Grande to UP’s Clark Park Yard in Eagle Pass, 7 rail […]
Pat Ottensmeyer, the late Kansas City Southern chief executive, had a favorite saying: Service begets growth. It’s not the most catchy phrase you’ll ever hear. But it’s true. And nowhere is that more apparent than in New England, where Genesee & Wyoming’s Berkshire & Eastern is growing a bumper crop of freight in the middle […]
NEW YORK — BNSF Railway, Canadian National, and Canadian Pacific Kansas City are touting interline partnerships as a way to gain new volume without having the regulatory and service-meltdown risks associated with a merger. But Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern say alliances are built on a foundation of sand, and can shift with the whims […]
LONDON — Train fares in England will be frozen for the first time in 30 years, the British government announced on Sunday, in a move it said would address the cost of living and aid economic growth. “We all want to see cheaper rail travel, so we’re freezing fares to help millions of passengers save […]
WASHINGTON — Attorneys General in three states — including the headquarters states of both railroads — have announced their support for the proposed Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger. In a Nov. 20 letter to Surface Transportation Board Chairman Patrick J. Fuchs, Attorneys General Chris Carr of Georgia, Mike Higlers of Nebraska, and J.B. McCuskey of West […]
NEW YORK — The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has opened a new Railcar Acceptance and Testing Facility, where the MTA will inspect and test new subway cars and other equipment before it is placed into service. The facility — the first new subway-car facility opened by the MTA since 1948 — is near the South Brooklyn Marine […]
EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — Norfolk Southern will provide a $20 million grant toward construction and operation of a first responder training center in East Palestine, the railroad said on Friday (Nov. 21). Plans for the training center were first announced in the wake of the February 2023 derailment in East Palestine, and a groundbreaking was […]
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota Commercial Railway has joined the growing number of railroads with locomotives commemorating the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence in 2026, introducing B36-7 No. 76 in red, white, and blue paint on Thursday (Nov. 25). The locomotive was built by General Electric in 1985 for Seaboard System. Before coming to Minnesota […]
BRAMPTON, Ontario — Canadian government officials today have announced the creation of two trade infrastructure funds, backed by Ca$6 billion over seven years, that the government says will double the nation’s non-U.S. exports and create access to new global markets. In an event at Canadian National Railway’s Brampton intermodal terminal, Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon and […]
WASHINGTON — District of Columbia Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton has proposed legislation to create a grant program to construct barriers along rail lines to mitigate impacts from derailments, noise, and vibrations. “While trains are a critical mode of transportation,” Norton said in a press release, “the 2023 Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine demonstrated […]
NEW YORK — Rail industry officials focused on only three topics during the opening day of the RailTrends conference: Merger, merger, and merger. Union Pacific’s proposed $85 billion acquisition of Norfolk Southern dominated conversations and presentations on Thursday. Can the plan to create a transcontinental railroad win regulatory approval? Can it lead to volume growth […]
WASHINGTON — CSX Transportation is asking the Surface Transportation Board to block parts of the state of Maryland’s new operating permit for the railroad’s Curtis Bay coal terminal in Baltimore, saying they constitute an impermissible attempt for the state to regulate rail transportation. The railroad, in a Nov. 19 filing, is asking the board for […]
