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 […]
Canadian Pacific CEO Keith Creel Canadian Pacific MIAMI — Canadian Pacific CEO Keith Creel is cheering the industry’s embrace of the Precision Scheduled Railroad operating model touted by his mentor, the late E. Hunter Harrison. “I want them all to do it … I think it’s the right way to run the business,” Creel told […]
NEW YORK – Commuter railroads are looking to Albany for help with expenses following grade crossing incidents. That includes a fatal grade crossing strike and subsequent derailment involving two trains in Westbury, in Nassau County on Long Island, on Tuesday evening. “Costs that should be borne by others are being borne by us currently,” Long […]
OMAHA, Neb. — Union Pacific has pulled 107 locomotives from its surge fleet and added 300 train and engine crews in response to harsh winter weather and derailments that gummed up its system over the past month. “I want to make it clear that the setbacks we’ve experienced are not due to the implementation of […]
FORT WORTH, Texas — BNSF Railway’s revenue and profits were up in 2018, with industrial products revenue and volume leading the way. BNSF’s annual operating income increased 9 percent, to $6.9 billion, on revenue of $23.9 billion, an increase of 12 percent, the railroad’s parent, Berkshire Hathaway, reported on Saturday and BNSF reported in its […]
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — The Oklahoma House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved House Bill 2472, a Republican-backed measure to allow law enforcement to fine railroads up to $10,000 for blocking grade crossings for more than 10 minutes. The bill, which enjoys large bi-partisan support, passed by a vote of 92-5, and will now move forward to […]
MIAMI — CSX Transportation’s capital spending is perfectly in line with the railroad’s current maintenance and growth needs, CEO Jim Foote says. The railroad will spend about $1.6 billion this year to maintain its network and embark on a handful of modest intermodal terminal expansion projects, down from $2.7 billion in 2016 — about a […]
The New Mexico state legislature is considering an amendment to Section 63-2-2 of NMSA 1978, which would require two-man crews to operate freight trains. The amendment “HB 244” would require two crew members to be in the cab during operations of freight trains with the exception of hostling and remote-control locomotives in railyards. During a […]
Canadian National power leads a westbound empty oil unit train through River Forest, Ill., on the Union Pacific on Aug. 25, 2018. TRAINS: David Lassen EDMONTON, Alberta — The government of Alberta has reached a $3.7-billion deal with Canadian National and Canadian Pacific to haul landlocked crude oil out of the province. The government will […]
Harsh winter weather — from extreme cold in the Midwest and Canada to record-breaking snowfall in the Pacific Northwest and flooding along the Mississippi River — is a major culprit in the decline of rail traffic this year, executives said this week. Rail traffic in North America had a strong final three months of 2018, […]
Association of American Railroads Association of American Railroads WASHINGTON — The Association of American Railroads today reported U.S. rail traffic for the week ending Feb. 16. For this week, total U.S. weekly rail traffic was 523,915 carloads and intermodal units, down 3 percent compared with the same week last year. Total carloads for the week […]
Jim Squires, NS CEO Norfolk Southern NORFOLK, Va. — It would be an understatement to say that Norfolk Southern’s views on Precision Scheduled Railroading have evolved. In November 2015, Jim Squires had been chief executive for barely six months when the wolf — dressed as Canadian Pacific CEO E. Hunter Harrison — came banging on […]
