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NEW YORK — Rail industry officials focused on only three topics during the opening day of the RailTrends conference: Merger, merger, and merger. Union Pacific’s proposed $85 billion acquisition of Norfolk Southern dominated conversations and presentations on Thursday. Can the plan to create a transcontinental railroad win regulatory approval? Can it lead to volume growth […]
WASHINGTON — CSX Transportation is asking the Surface Transportation Board to block parts of the state of Maryland’s new operating permit for the railroad’s Curtis Bay coal terminal in Baltimore, saying they constitute an impermissible attempt for the state to regulate rail transportation. The railroad, in a Nov. 19 filing, is asking the board for […]
Laura (Schlabach) Jacobson, co-founder of the Jerry and Laura Jacobson Foundation, which established the Age of Steam Roundhouse Museum in Sugarcreek, Ohio, died on Nov. 18, 2025, the museum announced in a statement today. Jacobson remained on the museum’s board of directors until her death. She was active in the organization’s leadership, helping ensure a […]
WASHINGTON — CSX Transportation has objected to the accelerated schedule Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern have proposed for Surface Transportation Board consideration of the UP-NS merger, with CSX offering its own proposal for a slightly longer schedule than an STB proposal that largely follows an earlier UP-NS proposal. CSX says the proposed shorter timeline “imposes […]
Western Maryland 76, one of two GE 44-tonners the road had, both built in 1943, does some switching at WM’s Hillen Street terminal in Baltimore in July 1948. H. A. McBride photo […]
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — The Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum has received a $50,000 grant from Norfolk Southern to support restoration of the museum’s Pullman sleeping car Maitland. The funding comes from the NS Thriving Communities Grant Program, which supports organizations working to further safety, sustainability, workforce development, and community resilience. “The Maitland was donated to TVRM […]
PHILADELPHIA — The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen has reached a tentative one-year deal with the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, a rare bit of good news for the problem-plagued transit agency. The union announced that the deal, covering engineers who operate Regional Rail trains, would include a 5% pay increase effective July 5, 2026. […]
SCHAUMBURG, Ill. — The CEOs of BNSF, CPKC, and Union Pacific are among speakers scheduled to take part in the annual Midwest Association of Rail Shippers Winter Meeting, set for Jan. 13-15 at the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center Hotel. Registration is available here, and is $395 through Dec. 12, $450 thereafter, and $500 at the […]
WASHINGTON — The American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association has informed the Surface Transportation Board that it intends to participate in the review process of the proposed Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger, although the organization has not indicated what position it might take. Short lines are individually and collectively are working to determine how the […]
WASHINGTON — Slumping intermodal traffic continues to keep weekly U.S. rail traffic below 2024 levels. For the week ending Nov. 15, 2025, U.S. volume was 493,880 carloads and intermodal units, a 4.5% decline from the same week a year ago. The total included 223,101 carloads, down 0.2%, and 270,779 containers and trailers, down 7.7%. It […]
CALVERTON, Md. — International container traffic helped total intermodal volume remain ahead of 2024 levels in the third quarter of 2025, according to the Intermodal Association of North America. Overall, intermodal volume increased by 2.8% over the same quarter a year ago. International container volume increased by 4.4%, from 2,317,879 to 2,419,908 containers, while domestic […]
STOCKTON, Calif. — The transportation menu of trains and buses running between the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California via the state’s Central Valley didn’t change following a Nov. 14 ribbon-cutting ceremony for what is now known as Gold Runner service. But that event at the Altamont Corridor Express maintenance facility in Stockton, […]
