Rail News

New intermodal loadings spiked at major U.S. railroads last week to their peak level so far this year, but carloads of bulk materials and heavy machinery or equipment slumped.

Membership is growing in a worldwide organization dedicated to stopping cargo crime.

Edward W. Rodzwicz, national president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, faces a federal charge of bribery.

Freight transportation was on the upswing through the summer, as indicated by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s closely watched Transportation Services Index.

A well-known rail and intermodal analyst, Ed Wolfe of Wolfe Research, is projecting that Pacer International could end up renegotiating its cut-rate contract with Union Pacific Railroad by getting out

Short line operator RailAmerica may be looking for acquisitions now that it has completed an initial public offering of stock, said Standard & Poor's Ratings Services.

Surface transportation should show modest growth through 2010 and then take off strongly in 2011 with double-digit growth in volume, a Schneider Logistics executive said Tuesday.

J.B.

Eastern-U.S.

Short line holding company Genesee &Wyoming said traffic fell 16.7 percent in the third quarter on lines it held a year earlier, but newly acquired properties brought in enough business that its c

RailAmerica said its initial public offering of stock – 10.5 million shares by the short line holding firm and 11.5 million by an affiliate of its owner, Fortress Investment Group – priced

Executives of the Union Pacific and BNSF railroads will join representatives of the six major West Coast container ports to promote the ports as an efficient and environmentally-friendly gateway for A

Rail traffic was already on shaky ground when heavy rainstorms in the Southeast waterlogged key parts of the national network during what should have been a busy workweek.

A minority stake in the short line holding company RailAmerica, owned by Fortress Investment Group, will be offered for sale through an initial public offering of common stock.

A former top rail regulatory lawyer is asking the Surface Transportation Board to review its December decision allowing Canadian National Railway to acquire a suburban Chicago short line.

Freight traffic at North America’s small railroads turned in its strongest weekly performance since Aug. 22, in the RMI RailConnect index of short line activity.

The city of Beaumont, Texas should see a marked improvement in downtown traffic congestion thanks to the Port of Beaumont’s $10.5 million rail improvement project, now being reviewed by the stat

The lull suggested by recent carload freight loadings at major U.S. railroads was evident again in the latest week, as volume showed only a mild rebound from flood-depressed levels.

Kansas City Southern had predicted for months that finances for the rail company would improve after it wrapped up a costly track project near Houston and issued more stock.

If you’ve got a big complaint on rail issues to put before the Surface Transportation Board, federal regulators will now want to hear your argument, up close and personal.

A year after Congress told federal regulators to issue $20 million in grants to help short line railroads recover from storm damages, the Federal Railroad Administration is ready to make the final $5

An alliance between U.S.

The U.S. Department of Commerce awarded a $6 million Economic Development Administration grant to the Jacksonville Port Authority to help improve the Blount Island Marine Terminal railroad system.

Introduction of a rail regulatory reform bill in the Senate still awaits agreement with some shippers, said Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W. Va.

The Federal Railroad Administration will make grant awards this winter out of its $8 billion stimulus fund for freight and passenger rail systems.

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services lowered its ratings on Panama Canal Railway Co. (PCRC), including lowering the long-term corporate credit rating to 'B+' from 'BB'.

A week-long curb on some shipments in and out of the U.S. Southeast, along with a fitfully slow freight recovery, combined to douse overall volume on small North American railroads.

Although the peak shipping season is getting under way at major North American railroads, rail executives say they expect little change from recession-socked traffic levels.

The Federal Railroad Administration and state transportation departments are pushing small stimulus grants through to bolster the rail system even though there is no word yet on any of the larger gran

CSX Transportation launched intermodal train service between Buffalo, N.Y., and the seaports of New York City and Philadelphia, in a bid to win more container business from the East Coast to the Canad

The recovery in freight traffic hit some washouts at major U.S. rail operations in the week ending Sept.

RailAmerica will sell a minority stake of the short line holding company now owned by Fortress Investment Group, in an initial public offering of common stock.

SNCF, France’s state-owned railway, said it will sharply increase container traffic and offer high speed express services as part of a $1.5 billion plan to boost market share and move its freigh

The United Steelworkers’ Local 1976, based in Montreal, ratified a three-year contract deal with Canadian Pacific Railway that raises wages three percent in 2010 and 2011 but leaves pay unchange

Surface trade with Canada and Mexico sank 28 percent in July compared with a year earlier, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics of the U.S. Department of Transportation reported Sept. 30.

A prototype switching locomotive that Norfolk Southern Railway showed off this week is a plug-in electric unit with 1,500 horsepower of pulling energy, zero exhaust and a pack of 1,080 batteries.

When E. Hunter Harrison retires at the end of this year as president and CEO of Canadian National Railway, one of CN’s key new facilities will bear his name in his old home town.

The western railroads have lost much of their East Coast intermodal cargo to all-water liner services from Asia, and now they must work diligently to preserve their market share in key inland location

A rail regulatory reform bill is still stuck in shadowy Senate-industry negotiations.