WASHINGTON — The question of how Canadian National should receive incentives or penalties for handling of Amtrak trains has no doubt chalked up hundreds — maybe thousands — of billable hours for the companies’ attorneys. The inability of the two sides to reach a new operating agreement first came to the Surface Transportation Board in […]
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 […]
Hays T. Watkins Jr., a soft-spoken Kentuckian who made the CSX merger a classic success, is dead at the age of 96. Watkins died Friday after complications from a fall, his son Tom Watkins has reported. “Hays Watkins without a doubt was and to this day remains the person with the highest degrees of integrity […]
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 […]
CALGARY, Alberta — Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern continue to test interline moves linking Canada, the U.S., and Mexico as a prelude to eventual single-line service once their proposed merger is approved. The railroads have operated six or seven international intermodal trains from the Port of Lazaro Cardenas, on Mexico’s west coast, to Chicago, […]
CALGARY, Alberta — Canadian Pacific posted higher quarterly revenue and operating income despite a decline in volume that was largely driven by the small Canadian grain crop. Operating income rose 6%, to $868 million, as revenue rose 7%, to $2.1 billion, CP announced on Thursday morning. Earnings per share, adjusted for the impact of one-time items, […]
WASHINGTON — Canadian National calls an Amtrak proposal that would give it dispatching control over CN lines with poor passenger performance “an outrageously self-serving recipe” that would “cause profound harm to freight railroads, freight customers, American consumers, and the broader economy,” and urges the Surface Transportation Board to reject the concept “out of hand.” Amtrak, […]
FORT WORTH, Texas — BNSF Railway and J.B. Hunt will begin serving a new intermodal terminal at the Port of Tacoma, Wash., next month. BNSF and the Northwest Seaport Alliance said the terminal will meet increased demand for intermodal service in the Seattle region. The new terminal, on 16 acres leased from the port authority, […]
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. […]
PARIS — A Quebec pension fund which has been active in Canadian rail infrastructure projects is reportedly the front-runner to purchase a Paris-based locomotive leasing firm. Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) and a possible alternative purchaser, U.S. investment bank J.P. Morgan, both outbid potential French purchasers for leasing firm Akiem. The transaction […]
WASHINGTON — The Federal Railroad Administration has released its long-anticipated rule proposal to require two-person crews for trains, drawing predictable, and strong, reactions from railroads (which are opposed), and unions (which are in favor). The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking would require two-person crews except for “certain low risk operations and circumstances where mitigating measures are […]
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 […]
