Progress Rail to offer diesel-battery hybrid locomotives

Blue and gray end-cab locomotive with three-axle trucks

BERLIN — Progress rail will begin offering diesel-battery-electric hybrid locomotives, with the first two such units to be delivered this year to Rumo, a Brazilian railway and logistics company. The company announced the addition of the hybrid locomotive to its offerings on Tuesday at the InnoTrans rail trade fair. Rumo will begin testing two GT38H […]

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Rail workers’ group calls for Wednesday picketing

People with picket signs on sidewalk

An ad-hoc rail workers’ group is calling for informational picketing on Wednesday to address what it calls “the staffing shortages and lack of a decent quality of life” for employees as railroads, employees, and customers wait to see if unions will ratify tentative agreements that averted a strike last week. Meanwhile, the International Association of […]

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Innotrans trade fair opens in Berlin

Cab ends of red trainset and blue and white trainset on adjacent display tracks

BERLIN — The world’s biggest rail industry trade fair, InnoTrans, has returned after a four-year gap caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The show opened its doors in Berlin today (Tuesday, Sept. 20), with 2,834 exhibitors from 56 countries using the entire Messe Berlin exhibition grounds, which includes 26 buildings covering more than 1.7 million square feet, […]

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Vote on rail labor deal awaits final contract language

Logo of SMART-TD union

WASHINGTON — Ratification of the tentative agreement between railroads and a dozen unions remains in limbo while final contact language is being formalized, according to a message from one of the operating unions to its members. A final version of the tentative agreement not expected until sometime this week at the earliest, the International Association […]

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Union Pacific drops Canadian Pacific from EMP intermodal program

Yellow locomotives moving double-stack cars with container crains in background

Union Pacific is booting Canadian Pacific out of the EMP domestic container pool. EMP, which rosters a 44,000-unit fleet of green 53-foot containers, is an interline intermodal partnership between UP and Norfolk Southern. CP, Canadian National, Kansas City Southern, and Florida East Coast also participate in EMP, which allows intermodal marketing companies to book loads […]

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Details emerge of 20-hour meeting that produced labor deal

Trains Washington Watch logo

WASHINGTON — Details of the negotiations that led to a tentative agreement between railroads and unions began emerging Thursday night, with Labor Secretary Marty Walsh saying he kept the two sides in his office for more than five hours at the end of 20 straight hours of talks. “The unions were very persistent on what […]

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Carload Considerations: Lessons from a near strike

Crew member walks across front of locomotive as another train passes on adjacent track

CHICAGO — Class I railroads reached tentative agreements with unions in the early-morning hours of Thursday, Sept. 15, putting to rest uncertainties about the prospect of a widespread work stoppage that could have begun as soon as today (Friday, Sept. 16). In the days leading to Thursday’s tentative agreements, Class I railroads started curtailing certain […]

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