North-American rail

A Senate committee on Wednesday approved legislation that would push the U.S. rail regulatory agency to more quickly address major issues between railroads and some carload shippers, but its prospects for passage are unclear

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack urged Warren Buffett last week to ensure that his BNSF Railway will be prepared to deliver a potential record U.S. corn and soybean harvest this year, the latest sign of political pressure on the rail industry to improve poor service.

Norfolk Southern Railway told shippers not to expect service improvements until late November, as peak volumes and annual maintenance work blunt efforts to restore network velocity.

A U.S. refrigerated rail transport provider’s decision to suspend service, citing poor rail performance by BNSF Railway, has given a prominent senator ammunition to criticize poor rail service.

BNSF Railway will end its weekly intermodal services between Fresno, California, and Chicago, in early December...

U.S. railroads came under heavy criticism at a Senate committee hearing on Wednesday following months of delays tied to the recent harsh winter and improving economy which has impacted grain and intermodal shippers

Persistent U.S. rail delays could give a boost to an annual push by rail critic Sen. Jay Rockefeller to strengthen the U.S. Surface Transportation Board, the U.S. rail regulatory agency.

The scope of U.S. shippers’ diversion of cargo through western Canadian ports can be seen in August intermodal statistics...

The attempt by CSX Transportation and the Port of Baltimore to gain double-stack container service to and from the port took a major hit Thursday after the state of Maryland withdrew funding for a planned intermodal terminal.

U.S. grain shippers are welcoming the International Longshore and Warehouse Union’s collective bargaining agreement with Pacific Northwest grain handlers, but they are still concerned about poor rail service that is hampering their ability to get exports to Asia.

Canadian National Railway announced that it will discontinue intermodal service to a rail hub at Auburn, Maine, effective Nov. 15, because of insufficient freight volume.

A Federal appeals court in Pasadena shot down a novel legal challenge to railyard emissions that if successful would have erected a roadblock to a proposed Burlington Northern Santa Fe intermodal railyard near the Port of Los Angeles.

U.S. Class I railroads are betting on tighter truck capacity, along with a surge of intermodal traffic, to allow them to kick domestic intermodal rate hikes into a higher gear.

BNSF Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway say they are steadily reducing a backlog of grain shipments, but agricultural shippers warn the true test of whether they can handle the upcoming harvest will come quickly, in a week or two.

A First Nation group has suspended its plan to stop Canadian National Railway from operating a line connecting the Port of Prince Rupert to the rest of the railroad’s network until Aug. 25.

WASHINGTON — Congressional pressure is mounting on BNSF Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway to get rid of a backlog of U.S. grain shipments before the harvest arrives this fall.

Many U.S. Midwest grain exporters have little reason to be optimistic that they’ll get their products to market on-time or for a price that will make shipping to Asia economically feasible.

Canadian National Railway services connecting the Port of Prince Rupert, British Columbia, to the rest of its network are running normally even though a First Nation group told the railroad to end operations by Aug. 4.

The first half of 2014 saw the start of several stories that JOC.com will most likely be covering for the next year and perhaps beyond.

Union Pacific management hopes that the company’s grab of rail business from its main competitor, BNSF, will translate into more long-term business for UP in the future.

Second-quarter volume increases have hampered Norfolk Southern’s ability to bring up train velocities after a cripplingly harsh winter.

Despite solid revenue growth in the second quarter, Canadian National Railway says it’s facing a capacity problem, particularly at Canadian seaports, that’s forcing Canada’s largest railroad to temporarily turn away business.

Mexico’s manufacturing growth could push Kansas City Southern to new heights in the near future, according to analysts.

Canadian Pacific Railway said it will likely increase domestic intermodal volume on a double-digit basis over the next couple years after seeing 53-foot container volume rocket 18 percent year-over-year in the second quarter.

CSX Transportation said service, encompassing both intermodal and carload services, has normalized after a surge of freight but admitted it is working to restore service to a “level customers have come to expect” by adding locomotives and train crews and building track capacity.

Kansas City Southern Railway appears to be on track to grab business generated by BMW’s planned $1 billion plant in Mexico.

The pace of North American intermodal volume growth in the second quarter more than tripled from the prior quarter...

Six months after the most disruptive winter for North American supply chain interests in recent memory, the upcoming summer-fall period is shaping up as the intermodal peak season of shipper discontent.

Less than five miles from the U.S. Capitol, southwest Washington, D.C., residents are waging a fierce fight against CSX Transportation’s plans to rebuild and expand a tunnel to allow the double stacking of containers.

U.S. surface transportation providers, ranging from railroads to trucking companies, are preparing for the approaching Hurricane Arthur.

Kansas City Southern Railway’s new intermodal facility will allow the railroad to handle the growing conversion of truck loads to the rails in the Dallas region.

Union Pacific Railroad has added 11 intermodal train starts between Northern California and Portland, Oregon, and Chicago this year, potentially allowing the carrier to grab business from customers frustrated with BNSF’s ailing service.

Canadian National Railway said its domestic and international intermodal services have returned to normal summer operating levels following a brutal winter that wracked most North American rail networks and played havoc with shippers’ supply chains.

U.S. and Mexican shippers later this month will gain better access to manufacturing growth in central Mexico through a joint service operated by BNSF Railway and Ferromex, the latest railroad partnership forged to tap growing cross-border trade.

Union Pacific Railroad appears to be taking advantage of shippers’ frustrations with BNSF Railway service between the Pacific Northwest and Chicago — one of the busiest North American intermodal lanes — by launching its own service between Portland and Chicago.

Norfolk Southern Railway said it expects to “get some uplift in intermodal pricing” for about a third of its intermodal business, as truck capacity tightens and over-the-road rates increase as a result.

Canadian Pacific Railway said it is increasing its domestic intermodal volume at a pace that by the end of the year will more than offset the loss of three container line contracts.

SANTA TERESA, N.M. — There’s not much out here other than roads, warehouses and cacti — and now a sprawling Union Pacific Railroad intermodal terminal and fueling station. Secluded as it is, what happens at this $400 million facility in a desert framed by mountains ripples through UP’s 32,000-mile U.S. network and taps into one of the largest trends in transportation rail: domestic rail growth.

Kansas City Southern Railway appears confident the Mexican government won’t require it to open up its track to competitors as legislation had threatened last fall.