AYER, Mass. — Norfolk Southern marked a milestone on Tuesday morning when its first New England double-stack train arrived in Ayer, Mass., behind its Conrail and Delaware & Hudson heritage units. With NS engineer Matt Bushart at the throttle and conductor Adam Feeley in the left-hand seat, Chicago-Ayer intermodal train 264 made its inaugural run […]
WASHINGTON — BNSF Railway’s bid to have federal regulators review Union Pacific’s compliance with conditions imposed as part of the 1996 UP-Southern Pacific merger is nothing more than a publicity stunt, UP told the Surface Transportation Board last week. On Nov. 28 — three weeks before UP and Norfolk Southern submitted their merger application — […]
WASHINGTON — Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern are withholding key documents that are needed for rival railroads, shippers, and regulators to properly evaluate their transcontinental merger proposal, BNSF Railway and Canadian National have told the Surface Transportation Board. In separate filings, BNSF and CN say the STB cannot properly assess the merger’s potential impacts on […]
Industry analysts speaking at a RailTrends webcast on Thursday (Jan. 8, 2026) were skeptical about some of the claims Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern make in their merger application, including its central theme that the $85 billion combination is fundamentally about volume growth. Independent analyst Rick Paterson noted that UP and NS volumes have been […]
In every issue News, p. 4 CSX’s new CEO is willing to wait for a merger Bill Stephens, p. 12 Big new merger, same old problem Brian Solomon, p. 46 Heritage and rail travel on Cape Cod, Mass. Preservation, p. 48 Temple Lumber Co. No. 20 moves to a new home […]
Norfolk Southern next week will shift its Chicago-New England intermodal trains to a faster CSX trackage-rights route east of the Albany, N.Y., area thanks to the completion of bridge-clearance projects on CSX’s former Pan Am Railways main line between Worcester and Ayer, Mass. NS trains 264 and 265 currently run single-stack to and from the […]
FORT WORTH, Texas — BNSF Railway Chief Marketing Officer Tom Williams warned customers on Tuesday, Jan. 6, that the proposed Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger “poses serious risks to competition, service, and your supply chain.” BNSF has had time to review the 6,692-page UP-NS merger application that was filed with federal regulators on Dec. 19, Williams […]
WASHINGTON — The Surface Transportation Board today said it aims to repeal regulations that have effectively prevented sole-served carload and bulk shippers from seeking access to a second railroad. The regulations cover reciprocal switching, through routes, and through rates. The STB’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking would jettison Part 1144 of the federal code of regulations, […]
FORT WORTH, Texas — BNSF Railway has delivered the first container loads to the vest-pocket intermodal ramp it opened in Oklahoma City for retailer Hobby Lobby. The first containers from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif., were delivered to the 42-acre terminal on Dec. 31. Locomotive Engineer Dane Sargent and Conductor Kolic […]
NICHOLASVILLE, Ky. — Former BNSF Railway operations chief Matt Igoe has been named president and chief operating officer for R.J. Corman Railroad Co., effective immediately, the shortline holding company announced on Monday. Igoe will assume responsibility for transportation, mechanical, engineering, and day-to-day network performance across the company’s 19 short lines. Igoe previously served as executive […]
CHICAGO — GATX Corp. has completed acquisition of Wells Fargo’s rail leasing operation in a joint venture with Brookfield Infrastructure Partners. The deal closed on Jan. 1, GATX said today (Jan. 5). The $4.2 billion acquisition covers approximately 101,000 railcars. “This marks an important milestone for GATX,” GATX CEO Robert C. Lyons said in a […]
Host Gerry Leone returns to the upper deck of his HO scale Bona Vista layout to tackle a “flat” problem. Watch as Gerry expands a tiny drainage creek into a wider, deeper river to add much-needed vertical relief. You’ll see him cut through sub-roadbed, repurpose deck girder bridges from a previous layout, and secure a new river […]
