North-American rail

Canadian National Railway’s net profit grew 20.5 percent in the first quarter from the recession period a year earlier as revenue grew 5.7 percent and the carrier reported a 1.2 percent drop in

North America’s largest railroads are seeing a sharp pickup in traffic during April, with volume outpacing anything seen during 2009.

Union Pacific Railroad officials see their 3.5 percent “core pricing” gains in the first quarter as the low point of 2010, and look for their overall rates to strengthen more as the year c

BNSF Railway declared its new Memphis Intermodal Facility to be “fully operational” after a $200 million expansion, and cut the ribbon on it this week.

CSX Transportation, one of the continent&rsquo;s largest freight railroads, sees the greatest security risk for its system from potential terrorist attacks on passenger trains that run on CSX tracks.<

The biggest railroad just got bigger, as Union Pacific saw profit jump 43 percent in the first quarter to $516 million, from the same period in 2009, while revenue grew 16 percent to $3.755 billion.

In light of a new Surface Transportation Board summons to explain how often its trains have blocked rail crossings in Chicago suburbs, Canadian National Railway says its own reports to the STB openly

With business growing solidly in all its business lines, intermodal firm Hub Group posted a first quarter profit gain of 41 percent from the weak 2009 period.

Intermodal shipment consolidator Hub Group will buy a total of 2,500 new domestic, jumbo-sized containers this year, amid a demand surge that has it near full capacity.

Hub Group, one of the leading intermodal middleman firms, will take the remaining 1,400 containers it runs on BNSF Railway and move them this year to Union Pacific Railroad.

Canadian National Railway needs to &ldquo;explain the significant differences,&rdquo; said the Surface Transportation Board, between CN&rsquo;s monthly reports and an audit of street-crossing blockage

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said it has revised its outlook on eastern-U.S.

When Amtrak&rsquo;s &ldquo;Heartland Flyer&rdquo; passenger train runs through cattle country in the next year from Oklahoma City to Fort Worth, Texas, it will be testing a 20 percent biodiesel blend

Credit evaluator Standard & Poor's Ratings Services revised its outlook for Union Pacific Railroad to &ldquo;positive&rdquo; from &ldquo;stable,&rdquo; given the recovery under way in freight busi

North American rail freight customers of locomotive builder GE Transportation are reducing the number of train power units they have stored as freight activity grows, GE officials said.

U.S.

OTTAWA &mdash; Canadian National Railway is sorry, and it promises to mend its hard-nosed ways with shippers and intermodal partners and will not, in the future, look out only for itself.

Freight traffic moved higher last week at North America&rsquo;s major railroads, after a sizable decline in the holiday week ahead of Easter.

For the first time since July 2008, major U.S. railroads in March saw a monthly gain in freight carloadings over the same period a year earlier.

Eastern-U.S.

Railroad officials are engaged in &ldquo;good&rdquo; talks in Congress on legislation that would reauthorize the Surface Transportation Board and revamp key rail regulations, said Michael Ward, the ch

CSX Transportation is sticking with its earlier guidance to see core pricing gains of 4 to 5 percent during 2010 although its first-quarter price gains were at the top of that range.

Domestic intermodal rail weathered the economic recession better than most transportation modes, and the industry appears now to be on the verge of experiencing unprecedented growth.

Eastern-U.S. railroad CSX Transportation saw first-quarter profit grow 24 percent from a year earlier to $306 million, as it boosted receipts and cut expenses.

Norfolk Southern Railway and Electro-Motive Diesel will run &ldquo;extensive&rdquo; tests of biodiesel fuel, monitoring the use of two blends in both linehaul and switcher locomotive units.

Canadian Pacific Railway reached a tentative agreement with its track workers in Canada.

The Department of Justice lodged a proposed consent decree to resolve a federal claim against Union Pacific Railroad for environmental costs, stemming from a 2004 train crash in Texas that released a

Intermodal loadings by the major North American railroads slowed last week to the weakest levels since snowstorms rocked the freight system in early to mid-February.

Canadian Pacific Railway appointed Edmond L. Harris as executive vice president and chief operations officer, a role in which he earlier served rival Canadian National Railway.

The Maritime Administration&rsquo;s final rule establishing its Marine Highway program broadens the concept from earlier proposals, in ways that could add more port facilities and types of cargo that

U.S. railroads will be able to tap into a new $50 million government grant program to help install expensive collision avoidance and locomotive control systems.

Backers are calling it their &ldquo;cold train,&rdquo; a four-day-a-week run of refrigerated intermodal cargoes from the Port of Quincy, Wash., to Chicago that starts moving this week.

CSX Transportation and the United Transportation Union reached a tentative labor deal covering UTU train conductors and yard workers on CSX southern lines.

BNSF Railway and Canadian National Railway signed new track sales accords with large commuter rail operations, in which they sold line and property for over $100 million each but retained some freight

Canadian National Railway sold a section of track to a government-owned agency responsible for the Toronto area transportation network.

Canadian Pacific Railway reached a new one-year agreement with Teck Coal, a major shipper of high-heat coal needed for steelmaking furnaces, to haul the fuel from Teck&rsquo;s mines in southeastern Br

Traffic jumped at the largest North American railroads as March ended, powered by shipments of finished vehicles and equipment along with materials at earlier stages from metallic ores to metal produc

U.S. sales of new automobiles are strengthening for all the largest car manufacturers, and generating sharp increases in shipments for materials, car parts and finished vehicles.

Union Pacific Railroad &ldquo;will continue to generate core price increases of roughly 4-6 percent over the next few years,&rdquo; said stock analyst Lee A. Klaskow of Longbow Research.

Mid-March loadings of basic road and site construction materials by the largest U.S.-owned railroads reached their highest levels since August.