WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration today issued a Notice of Funding Opportunity for the Federal-State Partnership for State of Good Repair Program. The funding opportunity includes $396 million in grant funding. “This $396 million in federal funding will provide a tremendous boost to private, state and local investments to improve […]
BURLINGTON, Vt. — A common theme woven through several presentations at a regional rail shippers’ conference this week involved a key question: Are railroads still relevant? The world increasingly expects transportation that’s fast, reliable, and easy. Railroads are slow, unreliable, and complicated. As a result, they’ve lost market share to trucks and often aren’t even […]
BURLINGTON, Vt. — Precision Scheduled Railroading favors stockholders over shippers, has not improved service, and could ultimately lead to some form of re-regulation of the railroad industry, a Penn State University logistics professor contends. “As an outsider, I’ve been looking at PSR and trying to figure out what it is, what it does, and what […]
A CSX Transportation intermodal train hits the diamond at Blue Island, Ill., on Sept. 16, 2019. CSX, BNSF, Norfolk Southern, and Union Pacific face a series of lawsuits from shippers over fuel surcharges the railroads instituted beginning in 2003. TRAINS: David Lassen Shippers across the country filed suit against the four largest U.S. railroads on […]
WASHINGTON — The Surface Transportation Board on Tuesday issued a notice of proposed rulemaking that would amend the Board’s railroad performance data reporting rules. Specifically, the Board proposes to include chemical and plastics traffic as a distinct reporting category to the Class I railroads’ weekly reporting of the “cars-held” metric, which tracks the average number […]
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — A supply chain hall of fame will be established in Rogers, Ark., based on a vote by the board of directors of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals, according to officials at the University of Arkansas. Rogers is located near the headquarters of J. B. Hunt, and Johnelle Hunt, who with […]
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — Today YRC Freight announced that by the end of this year YRC and BNSF Railway will have onboarded more than 600 branded intermodal containers. These new containers are part of the YRC commitment to acquire 1,000 branded intermodal containers by the end of 2020. Most of the containers will travel between […]
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Trucking and intermodal company Schneider has launched Schneider Rail Dray to aid shippers in getting freight to rail ramps and from rail ramps to receivers. Targeted for the new service are railroads, third party logistics companies without enough truck drivers, and shippers using their own intermodal containers, according to Schneider officials. […]
At terminal elevators, grain doors were stacked, collected, and sorted by the Western Weighing and Inspection Bureau for shipment back to originating railroads. These doors are stored by Milwaukee Road outside-braced boxcars. Library of Congress photo […]
In the 1910s, automobiles were shipped as “knock-downs,” with the bodies removed from the chassis and then loaded in boxcars. This is Ford’s Highland Park, Mich., plant in 1915. Ford Motor Co. photo […]
In 1972, four EMD six-axle locomotives lead a freight train over itself on the famed Tehachapi Loop in southern California. Jim Zwernemann photo […]
Railway Express Agency bought 500 new steel plug door reefers from American Car & Foundry in 1947-48. They initially wore a green and aluminum scheme, but were repainted all green in the 1950s. American Car & Foundry photo […]
