Speculation grows about Amazon’s increasing role as a freight carrier and what that may mean for suppliers of transportation services by air, truck, water, and perhaps eventually by rail. Since what has been termed the “2013 Christmas Fiasco” in which United Parcel Service failed to deliver Amazon packages before Christmas Day, Amazon has been assuming […]
Garden City Terminal rail yard, Savannah, Ga. Georgia Ports Authority Increased U.S. port expansions include substantial development of rail infrastructure, among them intermodal projects at ports on both coasts, the Gulf of Mexico, and on inland waterways. With the enlarged Panama Canal available since 2016, eastern ports have been upgrading to lure Pacific ship traffic […]
Association of American Railroads Association of American Railroads WASHINGTON — The Association of American Railroads recently reported U.S. rail traffic for the week ending Jan. 26. For this week, total U.S. weekly rail traffic was 522,026 carloads and intermodal units, down 4 percent compared with the same week last year. Total carloads for the week […]
OMAHA, Neb. — Union Pacific will drop interline intermodal service in 186 low-volume lanes with destinations on Canadian National, Canadian Pacific, and CSX Transportation. The changes, announced in late January, are the latest as UP streamlines its intermodal network as it implements its Unified Plan 2020, the new operating plan based on the principles of […]
A switch crew shuffles sand cars at the south end of Butler Yard, March 2015. Trains: Brian Schmidt BUTLER, Wis. – A Union Pacific yard in Milwaukee’s suburbs on former Chicago & North Western tracks is feeling the impact of UP’s adoption of Precision Scheduled Railroading, observers and those close to the yard tell Trains […]
MONTREAL — Canadian National will continue making major capacity improvements in western Canada this year, with nearly 80 miles of additional double track and three siding projects in the works for its lines linking Canadian West Coast ports, the Prairies, and Chicago. CN has been growing quickly on its spine between Edmonton, Alberta, and Winnipeg, […]
A screen image capture from a Metra video of natural gas-fired switch heaters. Media outlets covering the late January freeze in the Midwest have reported that Chicago’s Metra sets its tracks on fire. METRA CHICAGO — From ABC to the British Broadcasting Corp. with Stephen Colbert in between, the national and international media is obsessed […]
The Canadian National Railways started off by acquiring a handful of bankrupt and government owned railways, but soon after this takeover, and over the next decade, the Canadian National Railways expanded significantly as it purchased railroads in the United States. In this free 39-page PDF download, we dive into the details behind: The Wisconsin Central, […]
UP forecasts single-digit growth in 2019. This westbound mixed freight is in eastern Iowa. Trains: Jim Wrinn Executives from the six publicly traded Class I railroads expect 2019 to be another solid year for traffic and revenue growth amid a relatively strong economy. In most cases, the railroads expect this year to be a replay […]
A Canadian National freight makes its way through Trains’ hometown, Waukesha, Wis., in March 2018. CN announced fourth-quarter earnings earlier this week that beat analysts’ expectations. TRAINS: David Lassen MONTREAL — Canadian National had a strong finish to a year that began with congestion on its main line in Western Canada and ended with a financial […]
The engineer of Amtrak’s train 22, the Texas Eagle, assists an employee climbing aboard P42DC No. 17 on Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019. The northbound train was stopped at Shirley, Ill., with mechanical issues related to maintaining main reservoir air pressure. At the time of the photo the air temperature was minus-9 with a windchill of […]
Lynden Tennison, UP Chief Strategy Officer Union Pacific OMAHA, Neb. — Union Pacific today announced the pending retirement of Chief Strategy Officer Lynden Tennison, just six months after he was named executive vice president. Tennison began serving as executive vice president and chief strategy officer on Aug. 1, 2018. Two weeks later, when chief operating […]
