North-American rail

"I think that's not something we didn't expect," Canadian Pacific Railway Chief Executive Officer E. Hunter Harrison said Wednesday in New York City at a conference hosted by transportation research firm Wolfe Research.

Kansas City Southern Railway announced the name of its new chief executive officer Wednesday.

Shippers torn between road and rail have a new tool they can use to help make the decision.

BNSF Railway profit slumped 25 percent year-over-year in the first quarter, hammered by declines in energy-related volumes.

North American intermodal volume growth accelerated in the first quarter of 2016.

The Port of Baltimore is hoping a $425 million fix to a low-slung freight tunnel will help jump-start a surge in business.

The U.S. Federal Maritime Commission is levying the collective experience of the private sector to fight congestion at U.S ports.

“The rails have taken a hands-off attitude when it comes to SOLAS, which, after all, is a maritime issue,” Larry Gross, a senior transportation analyst at FTR Associates, told JOC.com Tuesday.

U.S. shippers expect to ramp up their conversion of freight from truck to intermodal rail to the highest level in a year and a half, according to a new survey.

Canadian National Railway is seeing a slowdown with its intermodal business tied to the container ports it serves, an ominous sign after the railroad’s intermodal volume was flat in the first three months of the year.

Fresh from fending off an acquisition attempt, Norfolk Southern Railway delivered strong first-quarter profit growth, showing off efficiencies that helped the railroad more than compensate for intermodal business dragged down by a division restructuring.

Struggling with intermodal and carload volume declines and a softer-than-anticipated U.S. economy, Union Pacific Railroad profit fell by double digits in the first quarter of 2016.

Even after Canadian Pacific Railway abandoned its bid for Norfolk Southern Railway, the head of the Calgary-based railroad is confident Class I rail consolidation will happen and fuel intermodal volume growth.

Erratic weather, the retooling and shutdown of Mexican auto plants and the weak peso continued to hurt Kansas City Southern Railway’s intermodal volume for another quarter, but the railroad still delivered a profit.

Canadian Pacific Railway might still make another play to acquire a Class I railroad. But if Chief Executive E. Hunter Harrison wants to succeed where he has failed twice before — with CSX Transportation in 2014 and with Norfolk Southern Railway this year — he’ll need to take a more diplomatic approach to sway legislators, regulators, shippers and shareholders, rail analysts told JOC.com.

BNSF Railway is building off the success of its very first logistics park after attracting a major plastics shipper at the North Texas operation that will ship exports via California ports.

CSX Transportation offered a dim outlook for intermodal volume growth Wednesday, after the company said declines in international business in the first quarter offset domestic gains and are expected to continue to hamper domestic volume growth in the year ahead.

Kansas City Southern Railway has announced the end to force majeure and has resumed intermodal service after severe flooding on the Louisiana-Texas border.

Canadian Pacific Railway announced Monday it has dropped its fight to merge with rival U.S. firm Norfolk Southern Railway, saying it sees “no clear path to a friendly merger at this time.”

BNSF Railway Friday raised the possibility that its proposed international intermodal railyard four miles from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which has been more than 10 years in the making, may never be built because of environmental challenges.

The proposed merger of Canadian Pacific and Norfolk Southern railways has put the chair of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure at odds with the former ranking member of the committee.

A California Superior Court judge Wednesday found the environmental impact report on the BNSF Railway’s proposed near-dock intermodal rail yard in Los Angeles to be inadequate, further delaying construction on a project that has been more than 10 years in the making.

Canadian Pacific and Norfolk Southern railways are drawing lines in the sand ahead of a looming shareholder meeting, where NS investors will vote over whether their board should come to the negotiating table with a merger-minded CP.

Norfolk Southern Railway has set a date for its annual shareholders meeting, setting the stage for a showdown with Canadian Pacific Railway, its longtime suitor that has been pursuing a merger with NS for nearly five months.

Kansas City Southern Railway is resuming operations and reopening lines after severe flooding on the Louisiana-Texas border shut down intermodal service on both its main lines south and east of Shreveport.

Canadian Pacific Railway officially filed its proxy statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday outlining a shareholder resolution to be considered at Norfolk Southern Railway’s annual meeting this spring. But, the overture merely asks NS shareholders to consider a trust rather than set the stage for control over the NS board.

Canadian Pacific Railway has officially requested U.S. rail regulators speed along an official review vetting the viability of its proposed merger with Norfolk Southern Railway in time for an NS shareholder meeting this spring.

Weak export growth is a serious impediment to economic growth and prosperity in the U.S. and is hampered more by inadequate infrastructure than by the strong U.S. dollar, delegates were told at the TPM 2016 conference here.

Intermodal service may have improved last year, but for some shippers, those improvements aren’t enough. “We’ve got a lot of issues in the Chicago area,” said Claudia Andersen, import/export manager of enterprise logistics at 1-800Flowers.com.

BNSF Railway’s profit fell 9 percent year-over-year to $1.08 billion in the fourth quarter due in large part to weaker intermodal carload volume, according to parent company Berkshire Hathaway.

As the deadline for the International Maritime Organization’s controversial new container weight rule nears, it’s still unclear whether railroads will accept containers without their verified gross mass documentation.

Shippers of agriculture and recycling metal back the potential merger of Canadian Pacific and Norfolk Southern railways, while UPS, other major logistics players, elected officials, municipalities, trade groups and chambers of commerce oppose such a deal, according to an analysis of more than 100 letters written to U.S. rail regulators.

The economic crisis in Russia has pulled down container traffic in the country’s Far East and suspended infrastructure projects in the region, according to a recent report from the Far East Marine Research Institute.

Canadian Pacific Railway is asking the U.S. government to vet the viability of its proposed merger with Norfolk Southern Railway.

U.S. domestic intermodal spot rates aren’t rising, suggesting the traditional surge of imports ahead of Chinese New Year, when Asia factories close for about two weeks, is weak.

Canadian Pacific Railway CEO E. Hunter Harrison said Wednesday he will abandon a proposed takeover of Norfolk Southern Railway if shareholders at the Virginia railroad fail to pressure their board to sit down at the negotiating table with their Canadian counterparts.

Canadian Pacific Railway said Tuesday it plans to submit a resolution asking Norfolk Southern Railway shareholders request their board of directors engage in “good faith discussions” with CP regarding its proposed merger, the newest approach after the Calgary-based company has been rebuffed three times.

Outlook for the Class I rail industry in 2016 varies from cautiously optimistic to downright grim. Even though intermodal service has generally improved, the railroads are finding competition from the trucking sector — for domestic loads and marine containers — as fierce as ever.

In its third white paper defending what has become an increasingly hostile bid for Norfolk Southern Railway, Canadian Pacific Railway detailed its confidence that a tie-up would pass muster with U.S. rail regulators.

CSX Transportation says it remains committed to its planned North Carolina intermodal terminal, even after local and state officials nixed the project’s original construction site outside Raleigh.