North-American rail

Weak demand has eroded domestic shipping rates, and may also have slowed the steady increase of rail transportation of ocean containers.

Shippers want the rail industry to try a slew of new approaches, but those changes may not materialize.

The new rule is above and beyond the published average train speeds that shippers and industry analysts have been relegated to rely on for years. Although those figures are an indicator of service reliability, they in no way provide a comprehensive appraisal of rail service.

There are potential favorable impacts of the political earthquake in the form of the incoming Trump administration.

City officials have dropped the idea of selling the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad, but are continuing to explore the possibility of a public-private partnership for the short line that handles switching for the port’s six Class I railroads.

BNSF and Kansas City Southern railways are launching a new joint cross-border intermodal service, a bet that the new Trump administration won’t upend the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Lawrence H “Larry” Kaufman, who provided authoritative reporting and analysis of railroads and transportation for The Journal of Commerce and other publications during a diverse career spanning more than 50 years, died Tuesday in Golden, Colorado.

The so-called “freight recession” continues to weigh down demand, volume, and pricing.

NS is the first and only Class I railroad to report an uptick in domestic and international intermodal business this earnings season.

Executives at the Montreal-based railway said they are dedicated to keeping pricing above inflation, even as the marketplace becomes more competitive on the roads and rails as demand slips and capacity rises.

Maryland governor pledges to reapply for federal funding for Howard Street tunnel.

The Western railway has lost some of its pricing power after domestic and international freight demand shrank in the third quarter.

The fall shipping season of 2016 has been good to Canadian Pacific Railway.

The railway said it remains dedicated to strong pricing.

One way railroads can make their international intermodal services more cost effective is by gaining a load on the backhaul. At first glance, it’s a simple idea.

With freight demand down and declining, Class I railroad executives now say they don’t expect to see a rebound in intermodal volume until the second half of 2017.

BNSF Railway plans to launch a new, faster intermodal service that promises to reduce transit times between the Pacific Northwest and Texas.

North American railroads are sending mixed messages to shippers coping with the fallout of the recent Hanjin Shipping line collapse.

The locomotive manufacturer extends its reach beyond railroads to shippers by buying cloud-based supply chain software firm.

U.S. exporters are bracing for what could be another historic harvest this year.

Truck and rail traffic in Southern California back to normal after wildfire contained.

A major North American intermodal group isn’t expecting a dramatic rebound in business next year.

Shippers can now tap a new door-to-door intermodal rail service connecting the U.S. and eastern Canada.

The move will help G&W, a railway highly dependent on now-slumping carload traffic, tap into an intermodal customer base via connections to Class I carriers moving cargo to and from the East Coast’s busiest port terminals in New York and New Jersey.

The so-called freight recession in North America may soon be coming to an end.

BNSF Railway will appeal last week’s California Superior Court ruling that the environmental impact report on a proposed near-dock rail yard is inadequate.

Shippers and railroads disagree about the merits of a new proposal from the U.S. Surface Transportation Board over so-called “reciprocal” or “competitive” switching.

The railway, Canada’s largest, said that traffic figures took a hit from weakened demand, but business was also curbed by challenges at Port Metro Vancouver.

Norfolk Southern railway’s results paint the near-final brushstrokes on the grim landscape that Class I railroads faced in the second quarter.

"I think if you look at the absolute volumes, they are not strong,” Eric Butler, UP’s executive vice president and chief marketing officer, said.

Canadian Pacific Railway’s financials took a hit in the second quarter.

CSX Transportation and the state’s port authority on Tuesday detailed two new projects there aimed at fueling more cargo through the ocean gateway and onto the rails, and vice versa.

Kansas City Southern Railway found the second quarter a dud for intermodal volume growth.

Efforts to attract new intermodal business were not enough to slow the loss of volume and profit at CSX Transportation.

The city of New Orleans is again exploring the sale of the port’s switching railroad.

The Jacksonville, Florida-based railroad is reporting significant improvements in its train velocity and availability, both indicators of service, and it is investing $1 billion into its overall rail network.

Competition in the soft market means lower domestic intermodal rates for shippers today, but a peak season turnaround — when volumes are expected to accelerate back to 2015 levels — could end historically low pricing.

Canadian National Railway announced Tuesday that chief executive officer Claude Mongeau will step down at the end of June, just months after returning to the railroad’s helm following treatment for a throat tumor.

Kansas City Southern Railway cross-border and domestic shippers are grappling with disruptions.