WASHINGTON — Intermodal strength continues to be the defining characteristic of U.S. rail traffic, according to the latest weekly statistics from the Association of American Railroads. For the week ending Jan. 16, 2021, the total rail traffic of 528,547 carloads and intermodal units was up 5.8% over the corresponding week in 2020 — thanks to […]
AKRON, Ohio — William B. “Bill” Benson, who was deeply involved in a number of steam railroading activities in the 1970s and 1980s, died on Jan. 16. He was 80. He was a co-founder of Steam Tours Inc, and owned former Reading T-1 No. 2102, operating it on a number of excursions in the Midwest […]
WASHINGTON — In a document filed Tuesday with the Surface Transportation Board, Amtrak and Metra have outlined areas where they’ve reached agreement in their long-running dispute over Metra’s use of Amtrak-owned Chicago Union Station — just ahead of a deadline to file briefs on remaining issues, including rent, to be addressed by the board. The […]
SHERBORN, Mass. — The Firefighters Education and Training Foundation has added a DOT 113 cryogenic tank car, the type approved for movement of liquefied natural gas, to its Safety Train program. Acquisition of the one-of-a-kind training car was possible through a joint effort of the Federal Railroad Administration, which donated the car, and insight and […]
The publicly traded Class I railroads will begin reporting their fourth-quarter and full-year financial results Thursday, when Union Pacific and CSX Transportation release their earnings. As a group, earnings for the six Class I systems are expected to rise 5.5%, according to I/B/E/S consensus estimates. That’s far better performance than is anticipated for the large […]
Canadian Pacific’s process of developing an experimental hydrogen fuel-cell freight locomotive should yield results fairly quickly, CEO Keith Creel says, with a prototype in operation in 2022. “By the end of next year, for certain, probably mid next year, we’re going to have a freight locomotive that’s going to have about 3,000 hp that we’re […]
Wednesday morning rail news: FTA awards funds to 37 transit programs for COVID-19 measures A test program for enhanced air filtration on DC Metro subway cars, voice-activated ticket vending machines on CT Rail’s Shoreline East commuter rail service, and a program to track COVID-19 exposure through heat mapping on NJ Transit light rail vehicles are […]
LOWELL, Ark. — J.B. Hunt executives remain confident that intermodal can grow faster than trucking despite current capacity constraints in Southern California amid a wave of imports from Asia. “We still think there is a huge opportunity in intermodal … It is a significant number of shipments that are moving on the highway that really […]
More Tuesday morning rail news: North Judson, Ind., to sell railroad to Midwest & Bluegrass The town of North Judson, Ind., will sell its short line to Midwest & Bluegrass Rail, which already operates the line through its purchase of the Chesapeake & Indiana Railroad in 2020. WKVI Radio reports the purchase will end almost […]
Tuesday afternoon rail news: KCS to set goal for greenhouse gas reduction Kansas City Southern has pledged to set a goal for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, submitting a commitment letter to the Science Based Targets Initiative to establish a target to align with what climate scientists say is needed to meet the Paris Agreement goal […]
Tuesday morning rail news: Trottenberg, former NYC transportation commissioner, nominated as deputy transportation secretary Former New York City Department of Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg will be nominated as U.S. Deputy Secretary for Transportation, the transition team for President-elect Joe Biden has announced. A press release announcing the appointment calls Trottenberg “a nationally recognized transportation leader […]
CHICAGO — The schedules that Metra ran before the COVID-19 pandemic are likely gone for good, Executive Director and CEO Jim Derwinski says, and the process of determining the nature of service that takes the place of those schedules will likely take some time. “We have a core belief that our old schedules mostly won’t […]
