Three traffic segments have driven Class I railroad performance in 2025, according to Association of American Railroads data: intermodal, coal, and grain. Year-to-date, intermodal volume is up 5% compared to the same stretch in 2024; coal is up 6%, and grains are also up 6%. Union Pacific is moving the most coal: In the most […]
Union Pacific appears to be using a familiar playbook that large, publicly traded companies trot out when considering mergers and acquisitions: Send up trial balloons and see how they fly. These trial balloons let management gauge market reaction, political sentiment, and how the media might spin the story, all without committing to a deal. They […]
Louisville & Nashville converted these 43-foot flatcars for trailer-on-flatcar service in 1955 by adding rub rails and jack connections. L&N marketed its service as “TOTE,” Trailer On Train Express.The trailers are an exterior-post, 32-foot type. Louisville & Nashville photo […]
A newly tooled American Car & Foundry 5,250-cubic-foot capacity four-bay Center Flow covered hopper has joined the WalthersMainline product range. The injection-molded plastic HO scale model features prototype-specific hatches and outlet gates, 36″ metal wheels on plastic axles, and body-mounted Proto-Max couplers. Prototype history American Car & Foundry introduced the 5250 Center Flow in 1964. […]
WASHINGTON — The death of a CSX conductor trainee in a June 2023 incident in Baltimore is an indication of broader safety and training gaps in the rail industry, the National Transportation Safety Board said in releasing its final investigation report today (July 17, 2025). In the June 26, 2023, incident, an individual in phase […]
WASHINGTON — Canadian Pacific Kansas City’s merger-related traffic grew 18.8% during the six-month period covered in its latest report to federal regulators. The July 15 report, which is required as part of the STB’s ongoing monitoring of the merger, covers the period from Nov. 1, 2024, through April 30 and compares traffic levels to the […]
Union Pacific is working with Morgan Stanley investment bankers to provide guidance on the potential acquisition of another Class I railroad, the online publication Semafor reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. UP and Morgan Stanley declined to comment to the media outlet. CSX and Norfolk Southern stock prices surged on the news, […]
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Transportation on Tuesday (July 15) announced some $488 million in grants under the Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development, or BUILD, grant program. While 77% of the funding is for road and bridge projects, two projects totaling $3.2 million are designated as rail projects and at least two others […]
PIERRE, S.D. — South Dakota’s Railroad Board has terminated its lease agreement with the Dakota Southern Railway on a section of state-owned track for failure to make an annual payment. KELO-TV reports the railroad board terminated the lease on the state-owned Napa-Platte line in the southeastern portion of the state, where Dakota Southern stored railcars. […]
WASHINGTON — U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy faced bipartisan grilling Wednesday questioning the slow pace of his department’s release of funding for already-approved infrastructure grants, as well as the reduction of Department of Transportation personnel to approve them. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing, “Oversight of the Department of Transportation’s Policies and Programs and […]
WASHINGTON — A Fairfield Southern Co. employee involved in remote-control switching died from injuries suffered when he struck a railcar on an adjacent track, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a preliminary report on the June 16, 2025, accident issued today (July 16, 2025). During switching work at the U.S. Steel Flintridge Yard in […]
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — CSX and BNSF Railway recently completed the Florida National Guard’s largest rail deployment since World War II. CSX originated 10 unit trains that carried 1,265 military vehicles, containers, and systems that were loaded at Fort Stewart, Ga., and transported to Birmingham, Ala., for interchange with BNSF, which then operated the trains to […]
