BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. — The status of Amtrak service on the Gulf Coast remains very much undetermined, but that’s not stopping the city of Bay St. Louis: It plans a ceremony today to mark “reactivation” of its Amtrak station, idle since passenger service was halted after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Al.com reports U.S. Department […]
ATLANTA — Norfolk Southern has launched a new program offering $1.2 million in scholarships to children of front-line employees — such as train crew members and mechanics. Under the Thoroughbred Scholars program, 100 students will receive scholarships of up to $10,000 over four years, while three students will receive special awards of up to $40,000 […]
WASHINGTON — The launch of Amtrak Gulf Coast service without infrastructure improvements would cause “immediate and future impairment to freight service that is unreasonable under any definition,” CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern argue in their latest filing with the Surface Transportation Board. This is the exact opposite of the contention Amtrak makes in its latest […]
WASHINGTON — Amtrak says its additional analysis shows its proposed Gulf Coast passenger service will cause “no unreasonable impairment” on the proposed route between New Orleans and Mobile, Ala., and argues that the case for such impairment by host railroads CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern “has failed.” Those contentions are included in the passenger railroad’s […]
ATLANTA — Norfolk Southern has resumed hump operations at its classification yard in Macon, Ga., and will soon reopen the hump at Bellevue, Ohio, as part of the new operating plan it began rolling out last month. Both yards were converted to flat-switching facilities in 2020 after volume sank at the onset of the pandemic. […]
ATLANTA – Norfolk Southern set quarterly revenue, operating income, and earnings per share records despite lower volume and service problems related to ongoing crew shortages. “In the second quarter we stabilized service levels, expanded our pipeline of conductor trainees, and launched the next evolution of our operating plan, TOP | SPG, with our signature no […]
Sometimes big stories hide in plain sight. One of them is the jaw-dropping way BNSF Railway has outgrown the other three big U.S. Class I railroads. Over the past two decades, BNSF has owned all of the tonnage growth on the big four U.S. systems. Its gross ton-miles are up 71% since 1996, BNSF’s first […]
Amazon has begun soliciting business from shippers interested in using space in the company’s fleet of 53-foot intermodal containers. The move, touted in a YouTube video posted this month, puts Amazon in direct competition with intermodal providers such as J.B. Hunt, Hub Group, and the intermodal marketing companies that fill rail-owned containers. “With intermodal for […]
GREENVILLE, S.C. — Three non-profit groups say they have made an offer to Norfolk Southern buy the right-of-way of the inactive Saluda Grade — when active, the steepest main line in America, averaging a 4.7% incline with a brief stretch of 5.1% grade — with plans to turn it into a 31-mile rail trail. The […]
ATLANTA — Norfolk Southern is increasing conductor trainee pay to $25 per hour, with a minimum of $200 in earnings per shift, the railroad has announced. Trainees will also be eligible for an on-the-job training incentive of $300 per biweekly pay period, provided they make themselves available to work. “We are committed to ensuring our […]
LAKE GENEVA, Wis. — Some of the more detailed metrics the Surface Transportation Board has begun collecting as it tracks the rail industry’s service issues could become part of the STB’s regular regulatory oversight, board member Patrick Fuchs said Tuesday. “I do think that some of the service numbers that we have collected are extraordinarily […]
WASHINGTON — Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern — responding to critics, skeptics, and opponents — told federal regulators this week that their proposed merger is in the public interest and should be approved. The railroads, in a three-volume, 4,374-page filing, argued that the first merger of Class I railroads in two decades should sail through […]
