Rail News

Canadian National Railway plans to invest about $94 million to develop a logistics park northeast of Calgary, Alberta, and transfer into it most of the operations now at its southeast Calgary rail yar

Before a powerful series of winter storms began to strike early this month, major U.S. railroads enjoyed their strongest traffic in many weeks as January ended.

U.S. freight shippers sent their highest shares yet by intermodal combination moves in the 2009 fourth quarter, compared with using trucks only, said transportation consultants FTR Associates.

Three days after a massive winter storm struck the mid-Atlantic region, freight transportation systems were still trying to recover to normal operating levels.

It took nearly a year and a stubbornly high unemployment rate before the Obama administration recast its long-awaited $8 billion in rail system grants as part of a jobs strategy.

Major North American railroads are in good shape to take advantage of a 2010 economic recovery.

U.S. Magnesium will recoup up to $1 million over five years under a Surface Transportation Board ruling that Union Pacific Railroad charged the chlorine shipper “unreasonably high” rates.

Small railroads saw their traffic strengthen steadily in recent weeks, as manufacturers used them to bring in metal ores and haul away factory products.

Credit evaluator Standard & Poor's Ratings Services raised its long-term ratings on debt issued by BNSF Railway, and said after acquisition by Berkshire Hathaway the railroad should keep generatin

The Surface Transportation Board’s decision to order freight rate repayments by Union Pacific Railroad to U.S.

The Surface Transportation Board, in a split decision, ruled that Union Pacific Railroad charged “unreasonably high” rates to chlorine shipper U.S.

President Obama’s budget proposes to have the Federal Railroad Administration start charging for some of its safety inspection services, to bring in $50 million in fee income during the fiscal y

Hub Group profit dropped 42 percent in 2009 to $34.3 million as the recession cut deeply into intermodal volume. Revenue was down 19 percent for the year to $1.5 billion.

Railroads are hoping winter storms are the main reason freight traffic has slowed since November, but there are growing concerns that a new chill may have taken hold of the broader recovery.

Top railroad executives are throwing down the gauntlet, serving notice to Congress and freight shippers they will push back hard against efforts to tighten rail regulations.

The Fed’s latest “Beige Book” survey, conducted by the economics staff of its 12 district reserve banks, said five regional reports show freight transportation was either “up s

After a 14 percent decline in intermodal traffic last year, the major western railroads are planning for increased container traffic in 2010.

Net profit at Kansas City Southern dropped 63 percent to $69 million in 2009, as the company came through a business environment in the first five months that Chairman and CEO Michael R.

Work on a high-speed rail network connecting U.S. cities is set to accelerate as President Barack Obama awards $8 billion in stimulus act high-speed rail funding to 31 states.

Canadian Pacific Railway improved its net profit in the fourth quarter by 3 percent year-over-year to $182 million with the help of some unusual tax benefits.

Norfolk Southern Railway’s fourth-quarter net income fell 32 percent from a year earlier to $307 million, as revenue fell 16 percent to $2.1 billion.

Eastern-U.S. railroad CSX Transportation said customers last year “committed to 92 new or expanded facilities” along CSX tracks, which represent $3.2 billion in investments.

President Obama is expected to award the long-delayed $8 billion in stimulus grants Thursday to develop high-speed rail systems and expand passenger train use along numerous freight rail corridors, ac

Canadian National Railway, bouyed by lower tax rates from Canadian provinces and receipts from selling some track to a transit agency, posted fourth-quarter net income of $548 million, up 1.6 percent

BNSF Railway implemented service improvements that cut scheduled trip times for 60 percent of its premium domestic intermodal traffic, saving shippers up to half a day on their long hauls, the company

Claude Mongeau, who took over this year as Canadian National Railway’s president and CEO, named his top operations and marketing executives as he builds out his leadership team.

Through the worst freight recession in decades and despite fierce trucking competition to keep loads on the highway, the domestic intermodal industry has held up pretty well.

European Union competition regulators Jan. 25 approved the takeover by France’s state railway SNCF of Geneva-based Ermewa, a leading railcar and rail container leasing firm.

By issuing a final regulation on automated train equipment, or positive train control, the Federal Railroad Administration cleared a path for railroads to spend billions of dollars on what is la

The U.S.

Like the first few raindrops after a long drought, the freight rate increases ocean and surface carriers are beginning to nail down are not enough to slake their thirst.

The 88,322 shipments picked up by small North American railroads in the latest week were the most since the week of Nov. 21 and were up 1.2 percent from the same point last year.

The National Transportation Safety Board wants the federal government to “require audio and image recorders in the cabs of all locomotives,” after determining that a commuter train operato

BNSF Railway plans to spend $2.4 billion in 2010 on capital improvements including track upgrades and freight cars, a drop of 10 percent from 2009 as it expects to make fewer purchases of locomotives.

BNSF Railway, in likely its last earnings report as a public company, saw it’s net profit fall 12.8 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, to $536 million, but the company showed str

Freight equipment leasing firm GATX said its net profit fell 25.6 percent to $21.5 million in the fourth quarter as a decline in rail shipping demand pushed pushed the profit in railcar lease op

New freight carload and intermodal pickups by major U.S. railroads rose in the week ending Jan. 16, but remained below their recent highs.

The largest U.S. freight railroad, Union Pacific, came out against the version of the rail regulatory bill that cleared the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee last month.

Western-U.S. carrier Union Pacific Railroad saw fourth-quarter profit fall 17 percent from a year earlier to $551 million, while net income for all of 2009 fell 19 percent to $1.9 billion.

President Obama is nominating Jeffrey R. Moreland, a former senior attorney with BNSF Railway and Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway, to join Amtrak’s board of directors.