FORT MYERS, Fla. — It has been two years since Hurricane Ian devastated Southwest Florida as a Category 5 hurricane, but for rail shippers in far southwestern Florida, railcars only started moving again a few months ago. Hurricane Ian made landfall in southwestern Florida on Sept. 28, 2022, with a record-setting storm surge, unprecedented inland […]
ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Communities along the former Southern Railway and Clinchfield Railroad in western North Carolina have seen record-setting rainfalls in the days prior to Hurricane Helene. Now, tropical weather is pouring additional rainfall into the area, creating what local meteorologists are calling a once-in-a-generation storm. Places along NS’ former Southern S-Line on the French […]
ATLANTA – Norfolk Southern yesterday named Brian Barr as its chief mechanical officer. Barr joins Norfolk Southern from Union Pacific, where he held the positions of general manager Great Lakes Services and senior vice president transportation. Barr started his career as a craft dispatcher in 1998 working at Conrail and, later, CSX. During his 26-year […]
WASHINGTON – CSX has reached a trackage rights agreement with Norfolk Southern that will allow its trains to detour over NS while the Howard Street Tunnel clearance project is under way in Baltimore. CSX had previously planned on operating through the 1.7-mile tunnel during short work windows, a complex process that would have required construction […]
ATLANTA — With longshoremen and port operators still unable to come to terms for a new labor agreement at East Coast ports, Norfolk Southern is recommending alternative origins for West Coast-destined international intermodal that normally flows into the eastern seaboard. NS outlined its recommended service Thursday, making use of its inland intermodal terminals to originate […]
WASHINGTON — Intermodal volume continues to carry overall weekly U.S. rail traffic to an increase over 2023 levels, according to statistics from the Association of American Railroads. For the week ending Sept. 21, total U.S. traffic was 522,112 carloads and intermodal units, a 6% increase over the same week a year ago. That figure includes […]
WASHINGTON — U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and acting Department of Labor Secretary Julie Su sent a letter today (Wednesday, Sept. 25) urging the CEOs of three Class I freight railroads to guarantee paid sick leave for all employees. One of the railroads, CSX, responded that two unions have rejected its efforts to do exactly […]
WASHINGTON – A combination of excessive in-train forces and the pairing of dead-in-tow locomotives that lacked alignment control couplers was the probable cause of a 2023 Norfolk Southern derailment in Alabama, the National Transportation Safety Board said today. Two locomotives and 37 cars derailed in the March 9 wreck on the Alabama East End District […]
BERLIN — A number of European manufacturers have unveiled new locomotive designs, several shown in public for the first time, at the InnoTrans trade fair. Stadler presented the first of its new six-axle freight locomotives for the British market, the dual-mode Class 99, which will be used by the UK’s largest rail freight company, GB […]
WASHINGTON — With a dockworkers strike looming at East Coast and Gulf Coast ports, Surface Transportation Board Chairman Robert E. Primus has asked BNSF Railway and Union Pacific to provide regulators with information on how they will handle the anticipated surge in container traffic at West Coast ports. “While I understand that a pivot to […]
UPDATE: The image has been clarified for the evacuation area of half-mile radius. https://t.co/lTpcF0Ni9U pic.twitter.com/Mv66wHwCss — Hamilton County EMA (@HCEMA) September 24, 2024 CLEVES, Ohio — An evacuation order was lifted this evening (Wednesday, Sept. 25) in the area where a tank car began leaking the toxic, flammable chemical styrene on Tuesday. The order was […]
WASHINGTON – The probable cause of a fatal accident involving a conductor trainee in CSX’s yard in Cumberland, Md., last summer was the train’s movement through an unidentified and unmitigated close clearance location, the National Transportation Safety Board said today. During a shove move, the conductor trainee was caught between the side of the railcar […]
