A southbound CN freight passes the former Soo Line station in Waukesha, Wis., in 2012. Brian Schmidt Q How did Canadian National end up operating the former Soo Line route through Wisconsin. I thought the Soo was affiliated with Canadian Pacific. – Kirk Gobain, Dodge City, Kan. A The Soo Line acquired the Milwaukee Road […]
Bill Stephens/ Class I railroad data Bill Stephens/ Class I railroad data The Class I railroad average operating ratio rose slightly in 2018 — the first increase in a decade — as congestion-related costs and an accounting rules change pushed the closely watched efficiency metric up at four of the seven big systems. CSX Transportation […]
A pair of BNSF Railway units pull a train of some 130-plus stored coal hoppers from Spikebuck, Colo., about five miles west of Parkdale, Colo., where Royal Gorge Route tourist trains terminate. Jody Moore CANON CITY, Colo. — A piece of Rio Grande’s long-dormant Tennessee Pass route saw freight traffic on it again briefly Monday. […]
The Tennessee Valley Authority board of directors approved closing the Bull Run Fossil Plant at Oak Ridge, Tenn., and the Paradise Fossil Plant Unit 3 in Western Kentucky on Feb. 14, 2019. Chattanooga, TENN. — A major Tennessee utility provider has approved closing two rail-served, coal-fired power plants, alluding to a changing landscape in electricity […]
WASHINGTON — The wheels in Washington are beginning to turn on what could become landmark infrastructure legislation. “We are seeing are a lot of stars aligning,” says Brittney Kohler, program director of transportation and infrastructure at the National League of Cities. “The optimism is that Congress seems to understand, and local governments are prepared to […]
Late CSX Transportation CEO E. Hunter Harrison speaks before the Surface Transportation Board in 2017. R.G. Edmonson The spread of E. Hunter Harrison’s Precision Scheduled Railroading operating model across the industry may be driven by investors and Wall Street. But it is being implemented by a cadre of Harrison disciples from his days at Illinois […]
CP maintenance workers remove ice from the walls of a Spiral Tunnel to prevent damage to passing trains. Canadian Pacific FIELD, British Columbia – This week’s fatal derailment in British Columbia that took the lives of three railroaders is not the first time tragedy has struck Canadian Pacific’s rugged Laggan Subdivision. Kicking Horse Pass, home […]
CALGARY, Alberta – Canadian Pacific Railway and Hapag-Lloyd have extended of their long-term agreement to the benefit of the international supply chain, the movement of cargo through the ports of Montreal and Vancouver, and the overall North American economy. “We are incredibly proud to continue to work with Hapag-Lloyd,” said Keith Creel, CP President and […]
CSX Transportation ES44AC-H leads a coal train through Hubbard Springs, Va., on Jan. 22. Chris Anderson HUBBARD SPRINGS, Va. — Carolinas-bound coal returned to CSX Transportation’s Cumberland Valley Subdivision on Jan. 22, as southbound loaded coal train N759-20 crossed the stretch of railroad on its journey to Duke Energy’s Marshall Steam Station in Terrell, N.C. […]
MGPX No. 201, part of the first batch of Magnetation iron ore cars built by FreightCar America, arrives in Superior, Wis., in June 2014. David C. Schauer Q I live along the BNSF Railway main line west of Chicago, and I have seen black gondola unit trains with MGPX reporting marks. Even from my second-story […]
Association of American Railroads Association of American Railroads WASHINGTON — The Association of American Railroads on Wednesday reported U.S. rail traffic for the week ending Jan. 5. For this week, total U.S. weekly rail traffic was 436,103 carloads and intermodal units, up 4.8 percent compared with the same week last year. Total carloads for the […]
Jim Vena, Union Pacific Chief Operating Officer Canadian National OMAHA, Neb. — Jim Vena is Union Pacific’s $9 billion man. No, that’s not how much Vena will earn as the railroad’s new chief operating officer. Under the terms of his contract, he’ll earn a base salary of $600,000 and will be eligible for an annual […]
