NEW YORK – Coal is enjoying a day in the sun amid low stockpiles at power plants and high natural gas prices. Overall railroad coal volumes have improved since the second quarter of 2021 and the trend is expected to continue into next year. But then a wave of coal-fired power plant retirements will put […]
Jim Florio, a former New Jersey congressman and governor credited with a key role in passage of 1980’s Staggers Act, which partially deregulated railroads, has died. He was 85. Florio’s death on Sunday, Sept. 25, was announced on Twitter by law partner Doug Steinhardt. No cause or place of death was given. While the bill […]
PITTSBURGH — Service on the big four U.S. Class I railroads is improving slowly but remains uneven amid ongoing and sporadic crew shortages, shippers said this week at the North East Association of Rail Shippers conference. One thing that’s helped improve service is the resumption of hump operations at several yards over the past few […]
BERLIN — Progress Rail will provide up to four EMD Joule battery-electric locomotives to BNSF for testing in Southern California, the company has announced today at InnoTrans. The trial, to be supported in part by government grants, will also see Progress provide two charging stations for the locomotives. The SD70J units will have 8 Megawatt-hours […]
The two biggest rail unions don’t expect to tally members’ votes on their tentative contract agreements with the Class I railroads until the middle of November. The SMART-TD union that represents conductors and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen that represents engineers both outlined ratification vote timelines this week in updates to their members. […]
BERLIN — Wabtec has presented a range of new technology at the InnoTrans trade fair intended to enable rail operators to reduce fuel bills while offering shippers more efficient and predictable service. In a series of exclusive interviews with Trains News Wire, Wabtec executives outlined the likely transition from diesel to alternative fuel types for […]
STRASBURG, Pa. – Jim Hager brings a host of skills and experience to his new job as general manager of the 190-year-old Strasburg Rail Road, America’s oldest short line and now one of the country’s busiest and longest-running steam tourist railroads. A New Jersey native, he started hanging around the Black River & Western, another […]
PITTSBURGH – Shippers, railroaders, and analysts welcomed CSX Transportation’s decision to hire its next CEO from outside the industry. The railroad announced last week that former Ford President Joe Hinrichs would replace the retiring CEO Jim Foote on Sept. 26. Hinrichs brings experience as a rail shipper who once ran logistics for Ford. The auto […]
WASHINGTON — A broad range of representatives of railroads, unions, shippers, environmental organizations, and opponents are scheduled to testify during the Surface Transportation Board’s three-day hearing on the proposed Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern merger, set for next Wednesday through Friday, Sept. 28-30. The STB released the full list of scheduled speakers today (Sept. 22) along […]
PITTSBURGH — Railroads need to collaborate and take a long-term view if they are to make the most of their traffic growth opportunities, Michael Miller, president of Genesee & Wyoming’s North American operations, told a shipper conference on Wednesday. “We as an industry have always looked at it as ‘What’s in it for me? What’s […]
WASHINGTON — A significant drop in intermodal traffic was the catalyst for a decline in weekly U.S. rail traffic for the week ending Sept. 17, according to statistics from the Association of American Railroads. Overall traffic was 490,654 carloads and intermodal units, down 2.9% from the same week in 2021. That included 251,126 containers and […]
BERLIN — The Railway Supply Institute and its Canadian and European counterparts have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to establish future collaboration between the rail supply industry groups. The agreement between RSI, the Canadian Association of Railway Suppliers, and the European Rail Supply Industry Association, or UNIFE, was announced Tuesday at the InnoTrans trade fair. The […]
